Chords
by DewWater
Summary: There is nothing to fear out of life but the full moon. Werewolf fiction. SasuSaku NejiTen NaruHina InoShikaTema
1. Coincidence

**Hello!**

**This is my second Naruto fanfiction, which I am hoping will be better than the first.**

**It really means a lot to me if you would review and tell me your thoughts and feelings about this, (no, I'm not a shrink in disguise).**

**Keep in mind that keeping characters in character is not exactly my biggest strength, but I try. I really do.**

**Thanks!**

-

**Torch Moon, **

**Reflection Phase:**

**Coincidence**

-

_Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate._

_-_

_Hello, my name is Haruno Sakura, and I am a werewolf._

The girl snapped the notebook shut, and sighed, running her fingers through her pastel pink locks. She sat back on her thin, single bed and looked intently at the slats of the bunk above her. "_There you go, Kurenai-sensei, an honest and complete account of my life._"

Yuuhi Kurenai, the science and health teacher of the orphanage that the Pack was currently taking shelter in had an odd way of contemplating life. There was no sane way that Haruno Sakura could tell her own life story, and not get put into a mental asylum.

After a second thought, she opened the notebook again and tore out the first page, squeezing it into a tight ball of wadded paper. Then she tossed it into the wastepaper basket next to the bunk, and leaving the notebook on the bed, swung her feet over the right edge and into a pair of strappy sandals.

Cautiously, she pulled open the door of their dorm, and was met by utter and complete chaos.

Yamanaka Ino, the official organizer of events, was running around frantically calling out orders and looking like a tornado. Yuuhi Kurenai, nervously trying to keep Ino in check, was failing and looking disgruntled. Half-wrapped cupcakes and pans of baked brownies were all settled neatly into rows on a small table.

The younger children of the orphanage had decided that it was time to play, and had come out trying to steal as many sweets as they could before Ino could whack them with the aluminum bat she was wielding. Sakura sighed, trying not to giggle, and took the bat calmly away from Ino.

"Ino-pig, child abuse isn't going to help the bake sale along."

Ino glared at her best friend, and blew a strand of her platinum blonde hair out of her face. "Well, you could show me a better way, forehead-girl," she panted, sounding exhausted. "You could ask for some more help," Sakura suggested. Ino shook her head violently. "Over my dead body! You know how devastating it would be to ask others for help when I refused it over two weeks ago."

Ino did have a point, but Sakura could never make sense of her friend's unshakable pride. The pink-haired girl lowered her voice, cautiously glanced around, and then whispered into Ino's ear, "There's always the Pack." Ino snorted, a reaction to cover up the fact that she had stiffened visibly. Sakura didn't fail to notice. "No," she replied airily. "I don't want to get them involved."

By "I don't want to get them involved", Sakura knew Ino meant she didn't want a certain lazy young wolf to be helping out, but she kept her mouth clamped loyaly shut. "Alright then," she muttered reluctantly, waltzing down the rickety spiral staircase and dodging around a three-year-old boy with a baseball cap perched jauntily on his head and covered in cupcake frosting.

Her last fleeting glance of Ino out of her peripheral vision was of the blonde looking about ready to swallow her pride and beg for Sakura's help on her knees, but Sakura was too fast. Baking was not in her expertise area.

Downstairs, it was a little less chaotic. "Ohayo, Tsunade-sama," she bowed respectfully before the lounging owner of the orphanage. Tsunade blinked blearily in acknowledgement and fell back into a stupor, lulled by the shafting sun beams settling in through the stained glass windows. Sakura smiled to herself and progressed out of the front door, sitting down on the concrete porch step.

Outside, the air was knife-sharp chilly, but she wouldn't have it any other way. Cars beeped and honked and tried to crush other people's bumpers. Passing pedestrians wrapped in long coats and colorful scarves, despite the unusual sunshine, smiled briefly at her before continuing. One young man of about twenty stopped to wolf whistle.

Sakura calmly gave him the finger.

It wasn't that men in general annoyed her; it was more that too many men as a total had bugged her, and this man happened to have ticked off her boiling point. He shuffled away, looking very embarrassed and slightly angry.

Haruno Sakura had grown beautiful over the past three years, even she, being modest, would grudgingly admit it. It was normal of a younger wolf, but that didn't make it any more comforting. Her pastel pink hair, merely unusual as a child, was now considered exotic. Her green eyes had enlarged and became more soulful. Her face was now pale and angelic, with soft and thin lips and a tall but not gangly figure.

Three years ago, the Pack had found the orphanage on a dark, misty night, on Christmas Eve. Tsunade had welcomed them with open arms, them being modest teenagers with quiet voices and excellent manners who didn't seem to have a home. They had been here ever since.

Sakura often questioned if it had been a wise choice to stay: having to fight the danger and temptation of losing their perfect control, and morphing in front of a human. The werewolf would undoubtedly get a fine meal, but what of it afterward? They would have to run again, and the girl had grown more attached to this rickety old building than she cared to admit.

She frowned, realizing that she was uncomfortable because she was sitting on something. Standing up halfway, she extracted a battered post-it note from her back. In Ino's familiar slanting cursive, it read, "_Green, pink, or blue?_"

It took her a few seconds to realize what Ino meant, and when she did, she almost laughed out loud. Surely Ino could decide on the color of the cupcake frostings for the upcoming bake sale without her help? It was this afternoon, and if they still hadn't frosted the cupcakes…and there were _quite_ a lot of cupcakes…

She sighed, stood up, and pushed open the huge wooden door of the orphanage again, prepared to tell Ino that pink would probably look most attractive on the chocolate cupcakes and that she should probably frost the vanilla ones with the new chocolate canisters of frosting that Sakura had picked up at the store last week…how forgetful her friend could be…

She was about to start up the stairs, but sucked in her breath instead, immediately reverting to remembering how to consciously breathe.

Uchiha Sasuke was standing at the top of the staircase, leaning casually against the banister, his hair in perfect disarray. Sakura stared at his angelic features, so perfectly sculpted as those typical of werewolves their age group. His coal black, cold eyes, the long, straight nose, the angular shape of his chin, the way that his raven hair fell about his face…

Right. She still had to breathe. Hyperventilation was hardly a way to be cool in front of her crush.

Yes, Haruno Sakura had a crush on Uchiha Sasuke, and it was no small schoolgirl one either. Since the day that she had first seen him, on that fateful day…

She shook her head to clear her thoughts, trying to block the ones about how annoyingly fangirlish her attitude had been toward him from the ages of nine to late twelve. She blushed slightly, breaking her eye contact with him, and started determinedly up the staircase, biting her lip all the while.

Sasuke was amused.

She would be hard pressed to be certain, but she had known the last Uchiha for many years now. Underneath the almost never-changing mask of coldness on his pale face, she was sure that there was a flicker of amusement within his black, emotionless eyes.

She wanted desperately to scream and break into a run, past him or back down the stairs, and to quell the maddening blush that was creeping from her cheeks down to her neck. It was excruciating to squeak, "Excuse me," and sweep past him onto the top floor. Well, er, not sweep, perhaps. More like stumble.

The Uchiha shifted slightly to follow her path over his shoulder, the natural human reaction. Then he merely turned away again and walked down the staircase, serenely calm. Sakura sighed wistfully, wishing that she could keep her cool like that when he was around. "Forehead girl!" Ino squealed. "Back so soon? Oh, you got the note…so you see the dilemma? Alright then, follow me…"

And Sakura was drawn away from her fantasies once again by the chattering Ino, who was as good of a shoulder, distracter, and best friend as you could ever find in the universe.

-

"My God, Ino, a small country has gone hungry once again from the amount of food that you've stolen from them," a girl with two buns perched atop her head scolded mockingly. Ino rolled her eyes good naturedly. "What, you going tree-hugger on me?"

Tenten, Weapons Mistress, gestured toward the tables, chairs, benches, trays, coffee tables, and portable boxes of sweets. "Seriously, Ino, you've outdone yourself this time." Sakura inwardly agreed. The number of empty frosting canisters in the kitchen was overwhelming. She pitied the person who had to take out the trash today.

"I t-think that it l-looks delicious, Ino-san," one pearl-eyed Hyuuga murmured shyly, looking down and fiddling her fingers. "Though I w-wouldn't be able to f-finish it in a year," she added pointedly.

Sakura smiled as Ino scolded Hinata gently. "How many times do I have to tell you to call me Ino-chan? Or just Ino, if you like. Ino-san makes me sound professional, and professional means you're old." "Hey, watch it!" Tenten complained. The Weapons Mistress had recently completed her martial arts training and was fully authorized to teach lessons if she wished.

Ino rolled her eyes again and bowed to her brown-haired friend. "Of course, of course, you're too old to be old-old. You're _ancient_." "Don't make me use my machine gun," Tenten laughed. Ino snorted. "Yeah, the one that Bob the Grape made for you when you were three, right?" Tenten pouted. "Bob was my friend!" "Uh huh, until Naruto ate him."

The four girls were lounged around on the upstairs center floor, exhausted because Ino had finally given in and asked for all of their help. Hinata was leaning against the wall, Tenten sat cross-legged on the ground, Sakura slumped into a collapsible chair, and Ino standing with crossed arms.

"Ino, sit down. You're making my blisters ache just looking at you," Tenten insisted. Ino sighed. "I don't want to." Tenten looked slightly taken aback at this answer. It didn't really seem typical of Ino. "Well, OK." She glanced casually down at her gold and silver watch on her thin left wrist, and suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, gosh, I promised Lee that I would train with him today! Ja ne!"

And she sped down the staircase at full sprint.

"Huh, I have yet to meet Lee," Sakura mentioned curiously. "Tenten-chan s-says that he's a b-bit eccentric," Hinata chimed in. Ino raised a delicate platinum blonde eyebrow. "Eccentric? As in crazy-eccentric? A cross between asylum survivor and Jack Sparrow?" Hinata shrugged helplessly while trying to look like she had understood a word of what Ino was implying.

Sakura scowled, getting up and playfully slapping Ino in the shoulder.

"Ah, I'm sure the guy's fine. You're just overly paranoid and judgemental." "Since when?" "Since you became professional and aged two million years." This time, Ino shoved Sakura. Unexpectedly, Sakura flew halfway across the room and landed on the wooden floor, looking stunned. Ino stared at her own hands. "Oops," she said meekly.

And then she was upon Sakura, asking, "Daijoubu?" over and over again. Sakura kept insisting that she was alright, but Ino was in a guilty mood today. Hinata hovered nearby, looking quietly concerned.

"I guess that I don't know our strength these days," the blonde muttered appreciatively. "It's not your average girl that can throw her friend across a room just by flicking them." "You pushed me, not flicked me!" Sakura protested indignantly. Ino smirked. "Whatever."

Hinata and Ino pulled Sakura up, and she sighed, dusting herself off. "I guess I better go change," she decided. Ino raised an eyebrow. "Aw, now you're just trying to make me feel bad. Your clothes are fine!" Sakura raised an eyebrow right back and turned around, revealing a large gash from between her shoulderblades, cutting diagonally across her back and ending right above her right hip. Her skin was undamaged, but the clothes were probably permanently scarred.

Ino giggled sheepishly. "Er, gomen?"

Sakura mock glared. "'Gomen' doesn't even come close." And then she tackled Ino to the ground, going for the kill, (er, not literally), and tickling her relentlessly between the third and fourth rib, Ino's secret weak spot.

Between their maniacal laughter and short bursts of breath, Hinata managed to get past them and slipped silently down the steps, giggling slightly all the while.

-

"I call you here to announce that our End of Year Festival is facing a slight difficulty," Tsunade's voice rang out over the auditorium. The assembled children and teenagers instantly fell to murmuring.

"We are one performance short of the annual talent show, act number forty two was canceled because of inappropriate content," here she paused and glared significantly at a group of rowdy twelve-year-old boys sitting in the corner, who grinned widely back at her, "and will need to be replaced as soon as possible."

There was even more excited and hushed discussion.

"Also, the band that we booked for entertainment has back out because of a contract deal." She obviously sounded annoyed at this statement. "I think that we'll need somebody else to perform. You don't need to be great, as this is pretty short notice, but you will need at least one song."

Sakura, Ino, and Tenten exchanged knowing glances. Hinata looked down, red flushed over her cheeks. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Tenten murmured. "Well, I can't really be sure unless I morph right now, but I think I've got a pretty good idea," Sakura replied, grinning widely. Ino grinned back at both of them. "Holla!" Tenten raised an eyebrow at her. "What? When you hang out with the lil' kiddies, you have to watch Disney Channel sometime," Ino retorted defiantly.

Hinata shook her head slightly, looking about ready to burn up with embarrassment. "Oh, come on, Hinata! We all know that you can sing!" Ino encouraged her. "Your voice sounds like an angel's!" Hinata blushed even more. "Ino-san…" "Ino-chan," Ino automatically corrected. "…I don't t-think I can…in f-front of all t-those people?"

"Anything is possible, Hyuuga Hinata!" Sakura firmly told her. Tenten smiled warmly. "Especially with somebody that has your voice. I croak like a toad." Hinata smiled weakly at that one, mostly because it was perfectly true.

"Oh, Shikamaru plays percussion, you know," Ino added. "He could help us out." Sakura raised an eyebrow. "I thought you guys weren't talking." Ino sniffed. "Well, we've made up then." "Shikamaru plays percussion? Funny, I never thought of him as a drummer sort of dude," Tenten commented, tuning out Tsunade's further announcements and settling back into her seat.

Ino giggled nervously. "Well, I did say percussion. He can be persuaded to play classical drums once in a while, but it's mostly triangle and maracas and rain stick, and all that." Tenten huffed, blowing up a strand of her brown bangs. "Wonderful. Rain stick boy."

Ino seemed slightly put out at the insult, but bit her lip and restrained from complaining. After all, the rain stick didn't sound all that promising.

-

**A/N: Well, there's the first chapter! Please read and review, it is AWFULLY long.**


	2. Chaos

**Wow. I've made it to the second chapter? I think it's an attention span record! Woot!**

**Huh, this is kind of weird. I never expected to get, like, _any_ reviews on The Perfect Place and to get what I got there for this one, because considering, I think it's written very much better. Odd. I guess that most normal people don't obsess over werewolves like I do. Aw. That's too bad.**

-

**Torch Moon,**

**Reflection Phase:**

**Chaos**

-

_Friends don't set friends on fire._

-

If there is one thing that was worse than the preparation for the bake sale, then it was the actual bake sale.

So thought Tenten as she, dreading what was to come, entered the "backyard" of the orphanage. It wasn't really accountable as a green lawn with a good view and a place to put your rocking chair once you got old, which was how real estate identified the term. No, their backyard was a piece of rather badly hardened cement facing the junkyard.

It was surprising, how the orphanage managed to exist without actually existing: people passed right by it everyday, and yet if you asked random passerby where it was, nobody actually kept account of the shack-building. Children were taught to stay away from seemingly old and abandoned buildings, so it figured.

And yet, once every month on Bake Sale Day, hundreds of people flooded in to buy from Ino's crew. They were very average sweets: after all, they were baked out of kid's experimentations. But it attracted grandmas, nephews, little babies with pacifiers, fathers in ties and with cell phones, mothers looking frantically for their children among all the mess. Tenten's best guess was that the event was more than just business selling pink-frosted vanilla cupcakes: it was a time for bonding, something that tended to get shunted off to the side amidst the beeping and honking of modern society.

She was bruised and tired, and irritated, today and not exactly in the mood to be reminded of the fact that she had been forced to abandon her own family long ago. Being a werewolf was not something that you could hide while living with your folks, and therefore, she had conveniently vanished two years ago from her family.

Lee was always in the upper hand in the spars, despite her superhuman werewolf strength. Lee was a natural-born genius when it came to martial arts, she could give him that. After all this time, she was beginning to suspect that he had much more than just the three black belts he claimed to have. She winced, rubbing a sore spot right underneath the back of her neck, between the shoulder blades where she couldn't reach.

"Tenten!" Ino smiled, looking relieved. Tenten's brain alarm went off. That tone meant that Ino needed a favor, and now. Fast.

"Hey, could you take over this table for a little while? I need to run to the bathroom…" Without waiting for an answer, the blonde hastily departed in the general direction of the back door of the orphanage. Tenten sighed. She wasn't going to come back. She gave one forlorn look at the table Ino wanted her to help at, one nearly buried under screaming, crying, and punching two-year-olds.

She veered in the opposite direction and ran for her life.

-

She found Hinata cowering up at the top of the spiral staircase, rocking back and forth ever so slightly. Tenten smiled grimly, and sat down next to her friend. "Ino got you?" she stated more than asked. Hinata smiled warmly back, and nodded ever so slightly.

"Oh, and don't press the red button," Tenten mentioned suddenly out of nowhere. Hinata looked at her, politely puzzled at her friends unusual antics. Tenten sighed. "You're sitting on the button that releases the emergency fire sprinklers." Hinata immediately sprang back from the wall, to discover that it was true.

Hinata, the human girl.

Tenten, having been around her so much for the past two years, didn't seem to notice it a lot of the time. Her self control had been finally nearly perfected, though of course not nearly as much as the Pack Alpha, Hyuuga Neji.

While Tenten's skin was russet from being in the sun so much, and rough from running through the woods, Hinata's was plain, satiny, and smooth. She was human, and to a werewolf, being human was a weakness. It was dangerous to be so attached to her friend. When they had first come here, Hinata was the only one that had not been afraid of them, despite her shy manner. If anybody had actually known the truth behind their deadly demeanor, they probably would have run screaming from the building outright.

And yet, Hinata was not afraid, even though she was probably the least likely to approach such an intimidating group as they were. She was lonely, and probably slightly desperate, to have done it.

Tenten was infinitely glad that fate's tug had put Hinata as one of her best friends. They had been perfectly happy, until Hinata fell in love with Uzumaki Naruto.

It would not have been a problem, if Naruto did not turn into a huge monster capable of killing Hinata when he lost his almost-perfect control. Hinata gave her love unconditionally, and it hurt Tenten to think that she could never have Naruto, (and the fact that Naruto was being a dobe like usual and not having the slightest clue of her utter devotion to him), even if he did end up loving her. A human-werewolf relationship always, always ended badly. Usually with the human as lunch.

Hinata couldn't end up as lunch. Tenten…well…Tenten would…huh, she didn't know what she would do. The world without Hinata seemed unbearably colorless, even though the human girl scarcely made her presence ever known. Tenten would probably end up throwing herself off of a tall building, (though she wasn't sure how much damage that would actually do to a fast-healing, superhuman-strength werewolf).

"Tenten-chan?" Hinata murmured softly, turning to smile slightly at Tenten.

Tenten smiled back warmly. "Hai, Hinata-chan?"

"W-What is it like, b-being…a w-werewolf?" she stuttered, looking more flustered than she usually would, her face slightly flushed. Hinata felt like she could offend a person so easily, and yet Tenten nearly laughed. Turning into a huge hairy beast didn't bother her very much, compared to the fact that she could harm Hinata if she wasn't careful enough in that form.

"Well, what do you want to know?" she asked, settling into a more comfortable position.

"I d-don't know…what d-does it feel like?" Hinata stuttered. Tenten shrugged, not really sure how to describe the strange sensation. "Well, when you change…it's _wonderful_, Hinata…it's like you're shedding the world off your shoulders. It's sweet and fierce and joyful, and it's like you can feel the earth's heartbeat in your veins. Am I making sense?" Hinata nodded obediently, looking lost.

Tenten chuckled slightly. "Of course, it's terrifying too, especially the first few times. The feeling that you no longer have control of your body, the overwhelming sense of being feral and too powerful and the knowledge that you can truly_ hurt somebody_ now. That's why I don't want you near me all the time…or Naruto."

Hinata looked down, looking embarrassed and guilty and undecided and confused. "But y-you're my friend, Tenten-chan," she murmured. "Naruto-kun is so b-brave all the time, and I w-want to be like him!" Tenten sighed. Hinata frequently displayed spurts of affection such as now, and that was what worried her.

"I know," she murmured, standing up. "I know." She helped Hinata up and was about to suggest that they go downstairs and get some milk and cookies when Ino's furious screech echoed up the staircase, "TENTEN!!! I TOLD YOU TO WATCH THE TABLE!!!"

Tenten winced, cringing. "Ouch. I'm dead."

Hinata chuckled quietly. "A-Any famous l-last words?"

Tenten smiled back with a wry grin. "Yeah. Whatever you do, don't push the red button."

-

The girl with the odango hairstyle cautiously picked her way down the spiral staircase, wincing every time a stair creaked and bracing herself for certain death. She shrank back when a loud little boy shouted to his friend, as they played catch, (not allowed to), inside of the building.

Ino's face was red, and her fists were clenched at her sides. If it were virtually possible, steam would have been pouring out of her ears. Tenten flinched back slightly as she roared at the top of her lungs, "TENTEN! I GAVE YOU A DUTY, DARNIT!"

Tenten winced. "Gomen-nasai, Ino-chan…I went up to say something to Hinata." Ino was oblivious. If she had noticed that Tenten had said something to her, she gave no indication. "NEGLECTING YOUR DUTY LIKE THAT! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT IT'S A MADHOUSE OUT THERE??!!"

Tenten choked. Rock Lee was standing behind Ino, happily imitating her red face by holding his breath, and using his pointer finger to scold Tenten and mouthing Ino's every word. Apparently, he had been treated to this lecture before.

Ino looked dangerously calm now. "Tenten? Are you laughing at me? Do you think this is funny?"

Tenten gulped. "Iie, Ino-chan, never!" She didn't want to rat out Lee, and yet her own life was on the line. If she thought about it on more serious terms, _both_ their lives, much more Lee's, would be in danger if Ino got too POed and started changing into a furball left and right. That might get just a tiny bit of publicity.

Ino seemed to calm down, the slightly red tint fading from her eyes, returning to their usual bright, shining, stellar blue. Her hair was soggy and in her face. She blew it up out of the way, annoyed. "Gomen, gomen, Tenten, just don't do it again," she said airily and breezing out the door.

Tenten collapsed into a relieved heap on the floor. Lee looked at her, puzzled, and sat down next to her, his simple eyes wide. "What is it, my young flower of youth?" Tenten smiled slightly. "Why do you call me that anyways? I'm not youthful at all. Ino makes me seem like an old woman with a walker." Lee shrugged. "It seems to fit you more than Ino, Tenten-san."

Tenten looked at him, slightly annoyed. "Tenten-chan. Or just Tenten." Lee shook his head. "You should be treated with respect and dignity, Tenten-san!" Tenten sighed. "To symbolize this, I will do five hundred push-ups with only my thumbs!" Tenten's eyes widened, and hastily with her hands motioned that this was completely unnecessary, but Lee was already gone in a puff of smoke as he ran off.

She sighed, and put her head into her hands. "Oh, Kami-sama…they make being a werewolf seem perfectly normal."

"You should not speak of our nature so carelessly," said a stern voice. Tenten froze, and looked up, very high up, (as she was still sitting), into the wide, pearly eyes of Hyuuga Neji, the Alpha dog.

She couldn't seem to find her voice, not even the usual undignified and very unladylike squeak that came out when she was caught doing something that she shouldn't have. Neji was cold, with the same stony, inscrutable mask in place where it always was. Tenten remembered a time when it hadn't been there, but that was before the bite.

She had known Neji longer than any of the pack, including Uchiha, the Beta male. They were childhood friends, you might say, but Tenten liked to think of their special bond as more than just the average friendship that deserted over time. Neji's cold manner sometimes made her feel like it had been deserted the day that he was bitten.

Often, it seemed like Neji decided whether or not they were still friends. Neji held the upper hand. She didn't have much say in the matter. For a while, she had gone along with the flow. Now it was too late to reverse the unfair power.

Neji sat down calmly, carefully, his face a mask of serene peacefulness. The rest of them were prone to their tempers, cursed to live this life. Neji was in perfect control all of the time, never skipping a beat, always perfect and so beyond her expectations, beyond her league.

She sighed softly. The barrier of ice was down now.

"What's troubling you?" Neji asked, his voice flat. Tenten shrugged. "Oh, this and that, Neji-kun." The rest of them would treat the Pack leader with more respect, but Tenten disliked the need for formalities. It made her feel foreign and like she didn't belong there, sitting on the bottom step of the staircase with Hyuuga Neji.

Neji turned away. "Soka."

He wasn't one to poke and prod where she didn't want him to. In truth, she really didn't know what was wrong. So Ino had yelled at her, big deal! It only happened three times a day. So Hinata was sitting on the red button of the emergency fire sprinklers. It had been fixed, no harm done. So Lee had just committed himself to 500 acts of physical torture for absolutely no reason at all. That, at least, was pretty normal too.

So what, exactly, was troubling Tenten?

True, Sakura fawning over the Uchiha had annoyed her a little today also. Then again, that was nothing out of the ordinary. Why should it be nagging at her now, sitting there with the Alpha and sharing their feelings like they were some kind of non-shrink psychological group?

"What was Ino asking you?"

Tenten thought that only Neji would state what Ino had been doing as "asking". Tenten smiled slightly, despite herself. "Oh, yelling at me for 'neglecting my duties' as usual. You saw the crowd out there." She gestured vaguely toward the direction of the back lawn, where sounds of happy frolicking floated up through the cracks in the building.

Neji didn't move a muscle, did not really give real answer. "Hn," he grunted in acknowledgement. Tenten flushed slightly. Well, of course, her troubles were only small naggings to Neji, who had much more important things to think about: the good of his Pack.

"Oh, gomen, Neji-kun! You have somewhere to go. I'll just leave and go to that table…" she trailed off as Neji was shaking his head. "Tenten, you puzzle me sometimes. I have nowhere to go, or I would not be sitting here right now. I do not wish to go and do something else. I am tired."

Tenten felt a wave of foolishness and the feeling of being rebuked by a scolding parent washed over her again. "Oh. Alright, then." Come to think of it, Neji did look tired. There were deep purple circles under his eyes; his normally alabaster skin was paler than usual.

"What have you been doing?" she wanted to ask, if not for the cowardice bubbling in the pit of her stomach. Neji was silent, looking expectantly at her, waiting for her to say something. Tenten, however, just smiled sweetly at him, and continued to gaze ahead in no particular direction.

She felt the sudden urge not to look at Neji's face.

-

Ino came into their dorm at night, looking absolutely exhausted, though granted not in the same inward way that Neji had. Her hair was in a mess and she was bright red all over. Her eyelids were drooping. Sakura hurried to bring her a cup of water.

The blonde moaned. "My good Kami-sama, I'm never going to have children." Sakura smirked. "Well, that's technically impossible anyways. We're technically immortal, remember?"

Ino rolled her eyes, and glared. "Why are we still aging, then?" "We can only be killed by a lethal weapon or another werewolf, and we age slower than normal humans, alright?" Sakura snapped. "Neji made me study it all before we moved here, werewolf physique."

Ino sighed and flopped backwards onto her bed. "Man, I'm glad that one of us has a brain at least." Sakura tapped her large forehead, still slightly out of proportion despite her growing beauty. It was shrinking, quickly. "Yep."

Hinata, who had been helped by Tenten, Sakura, and Ino, had finally convinced Tsunade to let her move into the same dorm as the female werewolves, who also currently were the only girls of their particular age group. The dorm was large, but the bunkbeds were small, with four on each side of the room, each side only half occupied.

The male wolves were behind a dusty, moth bitten curtain on the other side. Each gender had their own bathroom, but privacy was a no-show. Sakura often half-seriously half-joking declared that the perverted and very lazy Superintendent, Hatake Kakashi, peeked through the holes in those curtains at the girls in the orphanage.

Tenten changed into her huge gray T-shirt with signatures signed on with blue Sharpe, and a pair of slightly moth bitten cotton short shorts, bright red and plain.

She was about to call, "lights out", when Tsunade stepped into the room. Tenten was surprised, having nearly whacked the owner with her elbow in the stomach.

"Tsunade-sama!" Sakura cried out. Tsunade smiled.

"We have some new arrivals tonight. They are around your age group, and I thought that since this dorm is half-empty, they could stay with you. There are four of them." Neji had stiffened, not liking the idea of sharing a room with humans, afraid that the feral side of the wolves would take over all too quickly.

Tenten caught his eye. His head jerked up and down in an extremely slight motion. "Alright. When are they arriving?" she turned, asking Tsunade. Tsunade smiled slightly sheepishly. "Well, now, actually."

She stepped aside.

Two girls and two boys stepped into the room. One boy had brilliantly red hair and cold blue-green eyes. The other had spiky brown hair and purple tattoos. One girl was tall with four spiky dirty blonde ponytails and an angry expression. The other was much smaller, with modest, short brown hair and a blue shirt.

"Girls, boys, this is Subaku no Gaara, his siblings Temari and Kankurou, and his student, Matsuri. I hope you will be at home here. These are nice people, they will make sure that you will be comfortable." Tsunade beamed at the newcomers, and then gave the wolves an expression that clearly stated, "DO IT OR ELSE, FACE MY DEADLY WRATH".

Because their expressions were obviously not happy.

Why? Because their first immediate calculation from their divine appearances was that these four were wolves, just like them. They had trespassed on a larger Pack's territory, and since wolves are rather territorial…

They would have to get out, or face the consequences.

**A/N: Whoop, a cliffhanger…**


	3. Rivalry

**A/N: I really like this fiction and I just really want more reviews!**

**For those of you who have reviewed, thank you so much! Your thoughts and criticism are much appreciated! I'm glad that you thought my story worth the while to take time and press the purple review button! Arigato, very, very much! You have no idea how much that means to me.**

**To Bruna, your one-shot Uncool is really awesome! I read it, it's just the review button wouldn't work. Just would like you to know what I thought **

**Also, thank you for the thumbs-up! (Me, the grammar freak, forgetting to indent after dialogue…/has a seizure/)**

**Remember to review, because that's the only positive way that I can know you're actually reading this, and that there's a reason to continue it…**

**And now, the chapter, without further ado…**

-

**Traveling Moon**

**Fang Phase:**

**Rivalry**

-

"_Do or do not, there is no try!"_

_-Master Yoda, Star Wars V_

-

The tension in the room was extremely thick. Hinata was nervous, on edge, all too aware of the invisible electric currents of hatred and incredulousness flooding across and back in the room, Neji and Gaara's pale eyes locked in a sort of silent battle.

At last, Neji seemed to have won, because Gaara looked away, but now down, as he respectfully should have. A low growl issued from Neji's throat.

"What is your business here?" he asked, the growl persisting. Subaku no Gaara looked up, quiet and demanding for attention. He was probably the most noticeable out of the Pack of four. "Four is an average number of wolves to be together," Hinata remembered Tenten explaining to her. "Even our pack of eight is very unusually large."

"This is our territory; we clearly marked the boundaries," Neji snarled this time, the sound feral, and terrifying. Hinata trembled slightly. She couldn't believe that just because of the werewolf bite, her cousin now intimidated her so much.

Subaku no Gaara seemed calm, though the one called Temari tensed, looking around uneasily at the outnumbered odds. Kankurou was banging his knees together. He looked scared and slightly uncomfortable as his Alpha's searching gaze met every single one of the larger Pack's faces.

"Perhaps you are mistaken. We came across no boundary markings," Gaara finally drawled quietly.

Neji closed his eyes, looking more tired than Hinata had ever seen him. "By chance they might have been faint already. We only went to mark them at the Crater Phase of the Dawn Moon."

Gaara looked up, his pale eyes piercing and searching. Matsuri, by far the smallest of the four, looked openly panicked and scared. "Go pick out a bed, Matsuri," Gaara ordered her quietly.

"Gaara-sensei…"

"Now."

Matsuri, timid and scurrying like a mouse and eyeing Tenten with great apprehension, asked quietly in a squeaking voice if the bed next to Hinata's was taken. Tenten shook her head no, and made a great effort to smile at the young girl. She could not have been more than fourteen, and yet she was facing an extremely large enemy Pack.

Neji, at last, after much silent contemplations, stood aside and let Gaara and Kankurou pass behind the fluttering current. Temari shot one hostile glare at Tenten, and then sat down on the bottom bunk, under Matsuri.

-

It was a quiet night, but far from restful.

Hinata lay up in bed long after Tenten had closed the lights. Her pale eyes stared at the slats of the bunkbed above her, restraining a bulging mattress that squeaked every time Tenten rolled over. It seemed that the Weapons Mistress was having a restless night as well.

The younger Hyuuga whimpered slightly, drawing out the innocent sound.

It was hard to realize that she was the only human, within a room of 11 hostile werewolves. It had never bothered her before that the only friends and family she had ever known turned out to be less than "just human". Why was it hurting her now?

It probably had to do with the way that Gaara had looked at her. His eyes were cold, feral, and unfeeling: ruthless, in a shorter aspect. She trembled slightly, clutching the graying sheets to her body, racked with silent terror.

She rolled over, only to be faced by Sakura's wide, green eyes.

"Hinata-chan," the cherry-blossom haired girl murmured softly. "Are you awake?"

It was an unnecessary question, as Hinata's own pale pearl eyes were wide with fear and something else, staring through the dark straight back at Sakura. She nodded slightly, hoping that Sakura was planning to whisper as not to wake anybody else up with their conversation.

"Are you alright?" she murmured sympathetically, smiling slightly in recognition of the fear on her friend's face. "I know that we can be a bit scary sometimes, but trust me, it'll all be over soon. You'll be alright. Neji will make sure nothing comes to harm you."

"_But how will it end, and when?_" she wanted to ask. "_Will you protect me, too? What about Naruto-kun?_" But she didn't, and only smiled tentatively back at Sakura through the penetrating darkness. "A-Arigato, Sakura-chan."

Sakura smiled softly, sadly, as if to say, "I wish that we were friends under different circumstances", and rolled over, her peaceful breathing suggesting that she had fallen asleep very quickly, but Hinata knew her friend well enough to know that she was merely pretending for her sake.

-

She woke the next morning to peaceful, bliss-filled golden rays of sunshine pouring in through the only window of the dormitory, casting a warm glow over her pale skin. She squinted slightly, reaching her hands up to feel her face, which was several degrees warmer than the rest of her body, which was rolled up in twisted, sweaty sheets.

"Morning, Hinata-chan!"

Hinata blushed eight shades of red as she realized that Naruto was bending over her, his face mere inches from her own. She would have been out cold, if it hadn't been for the fact that the sheets were very uncomfortable.

"O-Ohayo, Naruto-kun!" she hastily replied, flushing even more for hesitating to respond. Naruto probably thought she didn't want to talk to him.

Naruto, however, was not deterred at all; on the contrary, he jumped up and sat down opposite her on Sakura's vacated bunk. "You slept in, so I thought I'd wake you up!" he said cheerily, giving her a wide, toothy smile and a thumbs up.

Hinata smiled slightly. "A-Arigato, Naruto-kun...where is e-everybody?" she asked politely, truly curious at all the empty beds. It was too bright to be before breakfast, and they usually came back up to change and go running.

Naruto's cheerful face fell slightly. "Oh. Neji and Gaara had a…disagreement this morning."

Hinata turned very pale, all of the blood abruptly flushing out of her face and leaving her slightly dizzy. "D-Disagreement?" she prompted, sensing that Naruto was distressed to be on the subject. Naruto nodded slowly, keeping his careful blue eyes on her pale ones.

"Yeah…Gaara…attacked…Neji, and they're all in the woods right now, except for me, trying to take them apart." He winced slightly, sounding half like he ought to be out there too, and that he didn't want to be the bearer of the news to Hinata, who looked like she could use a good dose of sleep right then.

Naruto looked concerned now, his blue eyes widening slightly. "Hinata-chan, you don't have to worry about it! Let's go down and get some breakfast together! I think that Old Lady Tsunade bought some Corn Flakes at last." Hinata smiled uncertainly.

"A-Alright…"

The enthusiastic young male wolf didn't need any more encouragement. Happily, he snagged Hinata's hand and pulled her down the steps, regardless to her stammering that she was still in her pajamas. They skidded to a halt in the kitchen, by which time Hinata was red again because Naruto was holding her hand.

The blonde didn't seem to notice her embarrassment. He jogged around, pulling out bowls and a bright yellow box of Corn Flakes cereal. "Hinata-chan, can I ask you a favor?" he asked her seriously as she hesitantly picked up a spoonful of cereal.

"Hai…" While on the subject of favors, Hinata suddenly recalled the band that Ino had suggested. To make up for the Bake Sale incident where she had walked out on Ino, couldn't she…?

"Naruto-kun, I need t-to ask you f-for a favor too!" she stuttered shyly. Naruto grinned broadly. He was so welcoming.

"Ask away, Hinata-chan, and I'll do what I can!"

"W-Well, Ino-san wanted to m-make a band for the e-entertainment at the End of Y-Year festival…and…" She faltered and stopped. Naruto was laughing. He was laughing at her. She cast her eyes downward at her cereal, feeling ashamed. She shouldn't have asked.

"That's a great idea, Hinata-chan!" he cried out, still chortling and surprising her. "You want us to be the singers? That's great!" Hinata looked up, glad that he had understood her but frantic that he had misunderstood the part that Ino wanted him to play, which was certainly not singer. She was baffled as to how he could have arrived at that incredulous conclusion, and didn't know how to break it to him that Naruto could not sing.

Naruto smiled at her again. Hinata turned red, and quickly stuffed a spoonful of the cereal into her mouth, which melted onto her tongue. His smile was so sweet. "_I want to be brave like you, Naruto-kun…_" her resolution echoed in the back of her subconscious mind.

"Your favor will help my favor too! I wanted you to find out for me if Sakura-chan likes me." Hinata wanted to reassure him that, of course Sakura-chan likes you! But then she realized what kind of "like" he meant, and felt a pang of something unpleasant in her chest.

She was sad. "Oh. A-Alright, Naruto-kun."

Alright, more than sad. Hinata was heartbroken. Naruto, as usual, was oblivious to the shy human girl's feelings. He was ecstatic that they had "understood" each other so well. "Arigato, arigato Hinata-chan!" he crowed, and zoomed out, leaving her to the soggy cereal, reflected into the cold ceramic bowl between her suddenly numb hands.

-

"Oh, Hinata…" Sakura murmured softly, sounding guilty and aghast at Naruto's oblivious behavior.

She winced, nursing a gash across her left cheek. Far from disfiguring her, it made her look, if possible, even more lovely. The red was violent against her pale ivory skin, giving her a wild edge. She smiled slightly at Hinata, who was looking down at her feet, her eyes suddenly haven forgotten how to shed tears.

The pink-haired werewolf patted her friend on the elbow.

"That Naruto, I'm going to whack him 'round the head a few times," she growled. Hinata smiled slightly at her friend.

"Arigato, S-Sakura-chan, but y-you don't have to d-do that for m-me. I'm f-fine. Really."

Sakura sighed. "No, you're not, Hinata. Look at you, you're a mess! But I have some news that might cheer you up. Neji finally settled his dispute with Gaara. It might have helped that we outnumber their pack two to one, but hey, size has it's advantages," she said confidently.

The raven-haired girl smiled at her friend brightly, but Sakura wasn't fooled. "Here, another thing that might cheer you up: Ino's finally persuaded Shikamaru to play percussion for us! And we'll have to persuade Naruto that he CANNOT sing, he's such a better drummer than Shika…"

She trailed off, realizing that Hinata wasn't listening. Her lips were twisted up slightly at the corners, but she was gazing off into space. "H-Hai, that will b-be fun," she finally amended.

Sakura patted her on the back.

"You know, you can always talk to me about these things," she suggested, still worried and the skin between her luminous green eyes creasing slightly. Hinata blushed slightly.

"I k-know, Sakura-chan."

-

Neji was rather disgruntled for a Pack leader that had just made a possible treaty alliance. He stormed into the dormitory right after Hinata and Sakura had finished their conversation, his deep brown hair slipping out of its loose pony tail, and his pale eyes glaring out at the world.

"Neji-nii-san!" Hinata exclaimed, jumping up and running over to him. Neji just swatted her aside, looking livid. "That Gaara will pay!" he roared, scattering his possessions off of his bed and sitting down, cracking his knuckles. Hinata flinched.

"D-Daijoubu, Neji-nii-san?" she whispered, concerned and hurt.

Neji softened slightly. "Iie, nothing's wrong. Subaku no Gaara's taken his Pack hunting, on our territory…and Shikamaru's with them," he said quietly. Hinata sank onto her bunk.

"Hunting?" she whispered, rather pale in the face.

Sakura was pale too, even more pale than usual. "But that's against the treaty rules!" she exclaimed incredulously. "You cannot hunt on another Pack's territory! It causes suspicion and overcrowding!"

Neji was grave when he replied. "I know."

Tenten burst in at that moment, looking furious too. "Shikamaru, that teme!" she roared, running her fingers through her hair. A nervous-looking Ino followed, looking slightly annoyed that Tenten was cursing at Shika.

"I never would have thought that he would give in to something like this," Sasuke was quick to follow, his voice cold and mocking. Sakura looked away. "Gaara-san gives me the creeps," she declared. Sasuke smirked.

"You are weak enough to feel fear toward a smaller pack?" he mocked.

Sakura flushed immediately, looking slightly hurt and angry. "Iie, I was merely pointing out that he would be a dangerous opponent in a one-on-one battle, Sasuke!" The Uchiha prodigy, amused, noted the dropped use of his affectionate suffix.

"Of course you were," he countered. Sakura glared at him.

Hinata sighed, a bit confused as to all the commotion as she was a human. Tenten had explained the werewolf customs to her well enough, but it was still a bit much to be caught into it first hand when she was nothing more than normal, and human. A healthy snack for somebody like Subaku no Gaara.

An unwilling tremor ran down her spine. She whimpered slightly.

This was a thriller come to life.

**A/N: A bit shorter than the others. I find it a bit more difficult to write about Hinata…but things are heating up, and the plot will roll even faster with the next chapter! So, please review! Much thanks!**


	4. Envy

**A/N: To answer your questions and reply to your reviews:  
Thank you guys so much for giving me your comments and booster-ups! I feel so much better about my writing now! I pity Hinata right now too, but life will be made fair, (I know that life's not supposed to be fair, but I'm the writer darnit, and I WILL MAKE IT FAIR!!). Things are a bit different with werewolves, so the answer is no, Tenten is not the Alpha female, though that would be pretty rad. The reason is that most werewolf packs are too small to have two leaders, but Sasuke is the Beta. I tried to squeeze a little SasuSaku into a basically NaruHina chapter, but I find that's harder to do than it looks…**

**If this chapter is bad, then it's because I'm bad at playing out Ino. Enjoy anyways, though!**

-

**Traveling Moon,  
**

**Fang Phase:**

**Envy**

-

"_We're about to waste thousands of dollars of peoples' tax money. We might as well spell the note right."_

_-Déjà vu_

-

"Shikamaru, what were you thinking?!"

Nara Shikamaru looked weary and annoyed as he muttered, "Troublesome woman," and moved to kick off his muddy rain boots. It was pouring outside, with a backdrop of a stormy sky and clouds that looked indecisive about whether to rage or to trickle.

Ino blew a strand of platinum blonde hair out of her face, and rested her hands onto her hips. "Don't give me that crap! You just broke wolf law! You can't just shrug that off, you know. You've got reckoning with Neji."

Shikamaru at last turned his head up to face his furious childhood friend. "Ino…"

"Don't you 'Ino' me! What were you thinking? She's not even part of the pack!" she screamed, looking on the verge of tears. Shikamaru looked at her oddly, and replied, "Ai, ai, woman! What's this about Temari? I went with the entire pack, you know."

Ino caught her mistake in time, and shrank back slightly, quieting down. "Well, why did you go with them anyways?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Well, somebody needed to watch them if they were going to go hunting. None of them had…changed…for a month, and that's even more dangerous than hunting on another pack's territory. You, of all people, should know how a werewolf gets if they haven't exercised for too long."

Now, Shika wasn't stupid. He knew that this conversation was about as much about werewolf law as striped yarn socks. No, this was just Ino's way of trying to talk about her own problems and venting out anger at the same time. Since when had she cared about the law?

Ino, on the other hand, was still on the verge of tears, her face sprouting patches of pink. Shikamaru gulped slightly, looking away from her exposed neck. The bloodlust of the hunt had not quite worn off, and werewolves had been known to bite another werewolf. It wasn't quite the same thing as eating a human being—it was more of a mark of dominance. However, he had a feeling that the pearly skin made him want her in more ways than one, and he didn't like it.

Ino glared at him. "Honestly, if you so much as touch me, Shika, I'll rip your throat out."

Shikamaru took a second to try and figure out whether she meant this threat literally, and finally deciding that she wouldn't dare, collapsed backward onto his own bunk. The others, evidently, were down at dinner. The werewolf side of him was full, the human side's stomach was making odd noises.

The blonde sighed as he tried to inch sideways toward the door. "Shika, I'm not done with you."

Good, she hadn't stopped using his nickname, his subconscious echoed. Then she couldn't be too mad. Not if she wanted him to still stay in their "band".

-

Ino stormed downstairs in a rage the next morning, where the four girls and two boys were going to practice in an empty dorm that Tsunade had helpfully lent them for rehearsal. It didn't help that they had one percussionist who legally sucked, a real drummer who thought he could sing, the real singer who refused to sing, and three girls who had never touched a rock instrument in their lives.

At the door to the room, Ino was surprised to see Sakura and Sasuke, engaged in what sounded like an actual conversation.

Sasuke was handsome, even Ino admitted that. His raven black hair contrasted starkly against the high, stiff-collared white shirt he was wearing with thin blue stripes running down it. He also had on a pair of dark jeans and a casual black zip-up sweatshirt. It was a sight that would make any girl swoon, but Sakura looked ready to faint, her cheeks tainted with red.

"Sasuke, we're just rehearsing for the talent show," she was explaining. Ino noted she was still annoyed at him, dropping the "kun" suffix, "…And I don't think you would be interested."

Sasuke grunted. "Hn." He smirked, then, and leaned against the door casually. Sakura sucked in a breath, the fleeting thought that Uchiha Sasuke looked more like a master's statue than anybody possibly good flying through her mind.

The Uchiha smirked and leaned toward the cherry-haired beauty, pausing with his lips next to her earlobe, as he did so the raven locks framing his face falling forward into his eyes. "I can still play bass better than any of you," he breathed.

Sakura fell back against the wall, silent and seemingly speechless. "Good, I can come in then," Sasuke said smoothly, and pushed her aside, opening the door. Ino rushed to her friend, about to squeal in excitement.

"Come on, Saku-chan, breath in and breath out! I'm not about to give you the Heimlich maneuver, you know."

The pink-haired wolf sighed dreamily, and slid down the wall. "He's beautiful, isn't he, Ino-pig?" Ino rolled her eyes. Typical love-sick Sakura. She'd be here outside of the door for a few hours if she allowed this to continue, so she hauled her friend up to her feet and sighed, putting on what she hoped was a motherly and stern facial expression.

"Sakura, you need to learn how to play a marvelous electric guitar in about four months. I suggest that we don't waste that time on the edge of fainting." Sakura smiled sheepishly and walked through the door, which Ino held open for her.

-

Inside, it was pandemonium, but much better than anything Ino had expected.

Shikamaru and Naruto were in a heated and very loud argument about Naruto's singing voice and how Shikamaru supposedly sucked at percussion, (Ino silently admitted that Naruto had a point there), and that both of their mothers were –insert inappropriate words here-s.

Tenten was trying in vain to buckle an electric bass to herself in the right position. Hinata fumbled with the long, snaking wire of a megaphone and to find the elusive plug-in socket. The only member of their little group missing was Neji, Ino noted, and it was a sad day that the Hyuuga prodigy sank to this standard of a rock band.

The Pack Alpha had better things to do.

Sasuke was smirking at Tenten, hopelessly arrogant as he instructed her on how to properly buckle the instrument. Tenten flushed and glared at him, clicking the buckle shut with an angry _snap!_

The raven-haired Uchiha paid no attention to the fuming Weapons Mistress, and airily sauntered over to Sakura, and buckled her straps for her too. Sakura looked ready to faint, red as a tomato, as Sasuke's skilled fingers buckled the black strap, brushing against her shoulder and her stomach.

Ino sighed and got behind the old, out-of-key electric keyboard. The instruments had been borrowed from the local music shop in return for free tickets to the end of year party and a few hours a week working there. It wasn't a bad deal at all, but the keyboard sure could use some touching up.

Tenten wobbled around, complaining and cursing vividly. She finally righted the bass backwards, and Sakura burst out laughing. "This is pathetic," she choked out between giggles.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at their antics, calmly standing there and in complete control of his own bass. His eyebrows furrowed together as he thrummed on the 4th string, frowning as he listened for the crash of the note.

Shikamaru nudged Ino in the ribs. "Oi, Ino, could you get Naruto to realize that he can't sing?" he complained. Ino giggled slightly.

"Shika, I thought we weren't talking," she scolded, inwardly pleased that they were on speaking terms again. She hated when she and Shikamaru weren't speaking. He was one of her best friends, in a way that her girlfriends weren't, and it was awkward not sharing any greetings with him when they passed in the hall or went hunting and the voices of their Pack echoed in their minds.

Shikamaru smiled cockily at her. "Well, we're talking now. Onegai, Ino, make him stop trying to sing Phantom of the Opera, my eardrums are going to bleed," he pleaded.

Ino smiled slightly and conked Naruto hard over the head without breaking eye contact from Shikamaru. "Taken care of," she said briskly, and turned to find Naruto collapsed on the ground with a large red bump rising slowly out of his head.

"Er, drummer down."

-

Fifteen minutes later, everything was settled and everybody in position.

"Here, I got some basic music for us to play," Ino explained as she passed around copies and put the score on a desk nearby.

Sasuke smirked at the simple chord progressions on the bass page he was sharing with Tenten, but refrained from commenting. Ino was glad. She couldn't stand the Uchiha to be making fun of their less-than-basic level. In short, they stunk.

"Here," said the blonde, striking an A on the keyboard. It sounded distant.

"Er, which one's A?" Tenten asked blankly, staring hopelessly down at the myriad of strings and ridges on her instrument. Sasuke sighed, resigned, and showed Sakura and Tenten where the fingerings were.

"Sakura, play loud, OK?" Ino begged, flopping into a tall wooden chair behind the keyboard. "Two basses are going to be hard to play over."

Sakura nodded weakly, looking confused and lost.

"_Oh, Kami-sama, how are we going to whip ourselves in shape in time for the End-of-Year Festival?_"

-

Ino was in better spirits than she thought she would have been at the end of rehearsal time and then some. True, Sakura had managed to knock out Naruto when she turned around and the stem of her guitar hit him right between the eyes. And Hinata had barely sung one note when she ran from the room, too embarrassed to continue, and Naruto, after being revived, had to go fetch her.

And also, Shikamaru truly had no rhythm at all. Emphasis on the _at all._

It was better than she had expected, however, overall, and she was the unspoken manager of the whole affair. After all, she was the one that had suggested it, and everybody was looking to her to dig them out of this sinkhole.

Dinner had been nice, she mused silently, turning the knob of their dorm. And it's perfect weather outside, at least for me: stormy, and drizzling. At nighttime. Beautiful.

The good spirits came crashing down when she opened the door.

Temari, a member of the rival pack, was crushed against one of the bed poles by none other than Shikamaru. Her face was between his palms, and they had obviously been kissing before Ino had barged in. It felt like her insides were giving out. No, the world was spinning. When had that started happening? And why did her lungs feel like they couldn't breathe anymore?

She didn't realize that she was shaking her head until Shikamaru's shocked face forced itself into her mental images.

"Ino," he stammered. "Are you alright?"

Ino just kept shaking her head as she backed out of the room slowly, still trying to breathe through the invisible corset around her ribs, still trying to steady herself on the seemingly swaying floor.

She slammed the door to his surprised expression.

And she ran.

Ino didn't know how long, didn't know where, didn't know why. She just ran, ran like she had never before. Down the stairs, past a surprised Sakura and out the front door, across a busy street, (jaywalking, she thought absently), and into the shrubbery and forest on the other side.

Without stopping, she was morphing, and for the first time since her bite, she was unaware of the sweet ache and the feral feelings sweeping through her mind. There was no time for that today. She barely felt her speed increase dramatically, the chirpings of a bird and the smell of the forest overwhelming her senses, the trees outlined in precise detail.

Her snow white paws hit the ground, the golden hairs on her back glistening and on end.

"_Why me?_" she was thinking desperately. There was not the familiar mumble of disjointed voices at the back of her mind during this time, this wolf form, either, because none of the others had transformed. It felt crushingly lonely, and Ino wanted to run away from it, but there was nowhere else to run.

Then, quite suddenly, there was another voice in her mind, and she felt like her privacy was being invaded.

"_Ino, it's not what you think_," the familiar pleading tone was desperate and hurt. Hurt, hah. How could he possibly be hurt, compared to this choking feeling in her, the shattering of her heart?

"_Of course it's not what I think. It would be pleasurable if you explained, no?_" was her bitingly sarcastic reply. Shikamaru's presence withdrew slightly from her conscious mind, recoiling slightly at the malice in her mind's voice.

She kept running. There was no way that he could catch up with her now. It must have been a mile at least, maybe two. She had too much of a head start. That gave her confidence.

"_Can't we just talk?_" he said at last, resigned to her fury.

"_Oh, I forgot. We were on speaking terms again, weren't we? Think away, then,_" she replied coolly, trying her best to sound indifferent.

"_First of all, why should you care?_" he asked. Ino pulled back her lips over her fangs and snarled, ironically amused. The one question that only dobe Naruto and troublesome-woman Shikamaru could ask and expect a straight answer. It was the question that drove her over the edge, anger pooling in her insides.

It also drove her over the edge quite literally, because absorbed inside herself, Ino ran straight off the edge of the usually-familiar, low cliff at the edge of the forest.

-

"_Is she awake?"_

_A worried voice floated somewhere above. Ino squished her eyelids together. She didn't want to wake up. The blackness was pleasant. She felt stiff._

_Her eyelids flickered. A flash of pink, a dash of brown, then a quick glance at violet-black._

"_H-Hinata?"_

_Was that her own voice, so cracked and weak? _

"_INO!"_

Yamanaka Ino shot straight up, and then groaned, regretting it, as she felt a sharp stab of pain in her left arm. "Human again," she muttered to herself. She looked up into the three worried faces of her female friends, all crouched over her.

"Are you insane?" Tenten roared, heaving her up to her feet.

"Even for a werewolf, that jump is suicidal, woman!" Sakura scolded, dusting off Ino's dirt-encrusted clothes for her. "What made you do it?"

Hinata only gazed onto her friend's paste-white face anxiously, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Ino looked down at her toes, ashamed at her own rash actions and not really sure what to tell her friends, though they had promised her that whatever problems she had, they would listen.

"It's…a long story," she finally amended. Sakura and Hinata didn't say anything more on the way back to the orphanage, supporting Ino on either side, but Tenten walked ahead and was anything but silent.

"We found you by transforming and hearing your mind's voice. It was really a turmoil, I've got to say. It was difficult to understand anything coherent in there at all. Finally, we found you, and managed to find footholds on the way down, and saw you spread-eagled lying there and out cold."

Tenten turned and stopped abruptly, causing the other three to bump into her, and glared at Ino. "Don't you ever do that to us again, you hear?" she scolded.

Ino nodded weakly.

As they continued to progress through the damp woods, she smiled slightly.

"_Who needs…Shikamaru…when I have friends like these?_"

The thought didn't convince her, as it even hurt to think his name now.

**A/N: What did you think? Longer, a bit of a twist…and sorry for the long update. Too much homework and icky school.**


	5. Tranquility

**A/N: OK, so in case you're about to flame me a whole lot for it, there is going to be a lot of SasuSaku in this story, so if you absolutely cannot stand SasuSaku fluff, then I really don't think things will work out with you and Chords. If you do like SasuSaku, then thumbs up! You're in the right place. Just wanted to get that out of my system. This chapter will explain a lot of both their personal history and that of the Pack's. Enjoy!**

-

**Traveling Moon,**

**Scarlet Phase:**

**Tranquility**

-

"_Lo, and the beast looked upon the face of beauty, and beauty stayed his hand, and he was forever after as one dead."_

_-Arabian Proverb, also used in King Kong_

-

Four days.

Four very, _very_ long, excruciatingly tense days.

Sakura exhaled deeply, feeling something close to being proud of herself. She'd made it for over half a week, between an inwardly crying Ino, a very confused and distraught Shikamaru, and Temari, who pretended like everything was normal and glared at Tenten a lot.

Neji was about to snap under the whole thing, and Sakura silently was agreeing with him.

She sat, bathing in the golden pool of sunshine drifting lazily over her bed, watching dust specks hover and float around her head in the air, tranquil and quiet. She sighed, feeling as close to content as she had been for a long time, her knees curled up under her and a sketching pencil perched jauntily behind her ear.

On a neat, pale white pad of paper in front of her was a design for a dress. Sakura loved to draw and to design clothes, though admittedly Hinata's talent for it was considerably better. In pale gray graphite was a complicated diagram for a dress with long, transparent sleeves, a baggy plaid jumper, and fishnet stockings.

The cherry-headed wolf sighed and cast aside the notebook, putting it on the old bedside drawer next to her beaten pillow, and got up, stretching and yawning.

It was a beautiful day, but she knew that it would end the moment that she came into human contact anywhere within a 100 feet radius of the orphanage building. Yeah, things were actually that bad.

Thus, she opened the door, resigning herself to Fate, and absently looking down at her ankle-socked feet.

_Oof._

Sakura collided with something with odd texture: hard, but soft too, in a good way. She fell over backward, and in doing so, jerked her head back to look into the surprised face of Uchiha Sasuke.

"G-Gomen-nasai, Sasuke…kun," she stammered, letting the suffix slip out unawares.

Something in the Uchiha's eyes flashed, but then it was gone and he held out a silent hand, hauling her back up with ease and offering no reply.

His pale face was troubled, and Sakura felt a pang in her chest. That beautiful face shouldn't be marred with worry lines or fiery flames of unease in the coal black eyes. It was a face that would never belong to her, but it was still so beautiful. _Sasuke_ was beautiful.

She sighed softly. "Sakura…why do you always do that?" he asked, hesitating slightly. Sakura glanced at him curiously.

"Do what?"

"…That."

He tilted her chin up with two fingers and frowned quizzically down at her, (He's so much taller than me now, Inner Sakura pouted), to look at her carefully, his eyes searching. Sakura's eyes fluttered closed, and she exhaled, red enhancing her cheeks.

Sasuke felt the rush of air over his palm, and it tickled. He let the hand drop, and notched it firmly back into his side.

He turned to leave, and Sakura felt a flutter of panic. She didn't want him to leave.

"Would you like…to go hunting with me?"

His voice was slightly muffled, since he was turned away, but Sakura's eyes flew open immediately. "Hunting…? With you? Now?" Sasuke turned back around to face her impatiently.

"Hai. You're annoying, making me repeat things."

Sakura didn't reply, only looked at him with a mixture of confusion, hopefulness, and panic. "But…the Pack is supposed to hunt together." Sasuke stiffened slightly, but did not hesitate to reply.

"I'm the Pack Beta. Nobody but Neji will challenge my word, and I can deal with the Hyuuga." He didn't sound like he wanted to deal with Neji, Sakura reflected.

"Iie, it will cause you trouble. I won't go. I'll go the next time all of us need to hunt," she said, gesturing to indicate all the empty beds and the dorm.

"Hn."

The last Uchiha turned to leave once again, indifferent, and he was halfway down the steps when Sakura's anxious voice floated down to him, and then the hurried patter of socked feet following.

"Wait! Sasuke-kun, I'll come with you, you can't go alone. And…I need to hunt anyways."

"Hn."

-

The forest was a blur of fast-moving trees around the lithe movements of two completely synchronized wolves, who were both attuned impossibly well to each other especially.

Sakura occasionally found it difficult to keep track of Sasuke in the woods, even with her enhanced eyesight. His ebony black fur blended in with the surroundings too well, and it made her conscious of her own ostentatious auburn coat.

Sasuke was troubled, and even the starting-to-be familiar sense of euphoria that came with the change was dwarfed by the intoxicating effect he always had on her. It had never changed, had it, she reflected to herself, slightly ashamed.

_Sasuke-kun, you want to talk about something_, she thought to him, more stated than asked. She knew his patterns.

There was a slight hesitant pause. Then,

_Hai._

_What is it? You seem troubled._

For a moment, his black outline was very clear as he fell in to step along with her pace, their movements exact and precise, the muscles bunching and relaxing under a mane of luscious fur. Sakura barked.

_Tell me._

Sasuke did not reply out loud, but his thoughts, the images that he sent to her, were vivid and intense. She nearly reeled from all the hidden meaning.

_Do you remember the day that you met me?_

Sakura shivered. How could she ever forget it? Even then, Sasuke had been the first being she had seen after she had been bitten, and he had been so beautiful, overwhelmingly so.

Sasuke took that as his answer, and continued, his mind's voice less sure of itself now.

_There's something about that day that I need to tell you, that you don't know…and…_

He stopped. Sakura looked at him, more seriously now, truly interested in what he had to say. Whatever he did end up telling her, she would not laugh. She wouldn't get mad. She'd take it seriously and to heart, and help him however she could.

…_And…it's something that I need to say, or it will torment my soul until my dying day, and maybe even then. You're too innocent, Sakura. It annoys me._

She was surprised with the bland honesty with which he was speaking to her. Of course, it was true that they had known each other longer than the other Pack members had known them, and they were attuned to each other's minds. However, this was still…unusual, for him to be so frank and open. She didn't want this to end, for the walls to go back up and the mask to be carefully set into place again.

_You remember me explaining to you what had happened when you transformed, and that I was the first being that you saw? Do you know why that was, that I was so deep into the forest at the time, happening to be in the same place where you were…lost?_

He seemed choked now. Sakura shook her head, not catching on. _Iie._

His voice shuddered, his outward frame convulsing slightly.

_Sakura…it's my fault that you're this way, that you have to live like this, hidden away. I'm the one that…bit you._

The female skid to a stop, a dead halt, and Sasuke immediately followed, seemingly having expected the reaction. She gulped, biting back a whimper rising up to her lips, and instead replied with her mind, making her thoughts as steady as possible.

_You…bit…me? Nande?_

Sasuke's eyes, even while in wolf form, were as cold as ever, though his expression was pained. He looked at the wolf opposite him full on, and howled softly, the sound mournful and full of feeling.

_Why, you ask? I'm not sure myself. Some punishment for me, perhaps, to be guilty of the ending of your mortal life. As a human, you smelled…appetizing, and I was hunting. That may be the crux of it, and it may not. G-Gomen…Sakura._

Sakura took another deep breath, and this time let the whimper escape slowly, letting him hear it, letting him know that she was afraid, but she was not going to run away.

_So…does the legend apply to you, then?_

Sasuke stiffened.

_The old legend, where the werewolf who bites another innocent human and makes them like himself, and then he will forever thirst after their flesh?...Hai, it applies to me;, the agony you cause me you could never understand, Sakura. You're…quite annoying._

Sakura looked down at her paws.

_Am I? Gomen, then, Sasuke-kun._

And she turned and ran, away from Sasuke and away from the forest, back toward the orphanage.

-

She lay in bed that night thinking over their fateful conversation, analyzing all the different parts of it, until her mind hurt from dissecting grammar functions for the tenth time.

_It was Sasuke-kun, all along._

That did explain a lot of things. She had never known who had bitten her before, though now the answer did seem painfully obvious. She felt stupid and hopelessly ignorant.

They had met outside of a small town, in the woods. She had been lost, and hurt pretty badly. The next thing she knew, she was _different_, and it had been terrorizing, if Sasuke had not already been there to calm her down.

It was at that moment that she had fallen undeniably in love with him.

It didn't really matter though, as he considered her as no more than a burden, appetizing to him still even as a werewolf. Most werewolves didn't have this problem, as their creators belonged to a different Pack far away and they never met in their lifetimes.

Sasuke and Sakura were in the same Pack, and would probably be for the rest of their lives. It was painfully cruel to think about when Sakura realized how much pain she was causing Sasuke every day, just being in the same room with him, how much he longed to sink his canines into her flesh.

Now she understood the cold manner in which he always treated her, never getting nearer to her than he could help. It was his nature to be that way, after his brother Itachi had massacred his family, but it was also a necessity.

Ino walked in, looking sad as she had for the past few days, and flopped down on her bed.

"I need to strangle something right now," she finally said flatly, whether to herself or to Sakura neither could tell. Sakura replied anyways.

"What about Lee? I think a good throttling might put him on the right track," she replied, rolling over slightly and feeling Ino do the same above her.

It got the effect that she wanted. Her blonde friend snorted.

"I think you might be right about that one. Or Jiraiya. Now there's one that could use one of Tsunade's killer punches." Sakura smiled grimly, having not forgotten a certain incident the previous year involving Jiraiya, a few bottles of sake, and a band of bikini-wearing girls in the community pool.

"Agreed."

-

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

"NARUTO! URUSAI!"

Sakura sat boltright up and let Naruto have it, and by the end of it, the number one dobe was lying in a bloody heap on the ground, and Hinata was about to faint. "She woke up on the wrong side of the bed again," Tenten stage-whispered to Ino, who eyed her friend apprehensively.

The pink-haired girl paid neither of them any mind, and calmly stepped over the bruised mass of dobe on the ground to brush her teeth. "By the way, Ino, we're out of toothpaste," she called from the adjoined bathroom.

The girls looked and each other and shrugged.

Sasuke smirked, back to his old self again. "Dobe."

**A/N: A bit short, but pretty fluffy…and no, Sasuke does not have any romantic feelings for Sakura, (at this point, heh heh), he's merely morally guilty and wants to make amends for taking her life away.**


	6. Indecision

**A/N: Alright, so once again, I took my sweet time to update. You know you love it. /sees pitchforks/ OK, enough with really badly done sarcasm. The chapter's here, so there will be no need to kill me. Ahem. Thank you. **

**To answer your reviews:**

**Yes, there will be plenty for the feasting coming up when it comes to NejiTen moments, (that was just my worst metaphor ever). Thank you for complimenting the story so much, but I really believe that I can do better, so I'll try. I try.**

-

**Traveling Moon,**

**Scarlet Phase:**

**Indecision**

-

"_They can take spinach back to whatever dreadful place they found it at."_

_-history book_

-

"Neji-kun? Are you awake?"

Tenten tentatively poked her head around the curtain. Neji was awake, but he was silent as the grave, sitting in silent contemplation on the edge of his bunk bed. The Weapons Mistress sighed.

With Neji, most mornings begun this way: with meditation. She wouldn't be surprised if he suddenly started telling her, "may the Force be with you" at breakfast times. It would have been a sign to teleport a normal person to a mental asylum at once. Not Neji, though. If life was a song, then Neji's rhythm was perfect: just to another tempo.

She let herself in around the curtain without permission, and tentatively tapped him on the shoulder. His chest was bare, and contact with his shoulder skin, however briefly, burned her fingertips. She drew them back quickly, and waited for the response.

Neji's wide eyes fluttered open, and after a brief scope, found that Tenten had obviously been the cause of the interruption of what he considered me-time. He looked slightly confused and disoriented, as if the other meditating world where he had been was on a completely different track than world, (or rather, no track at all), and that being whipped back to this one was rather unpleasant.

"What is it, Tenten?" he asked, sounding resigned and wistful. It was the first time for a long time that Tenten had seen him that way, and it made her heart thump beyond normal frequency.

"Ano, gomen-nasai, Neji-kun, for disturbing you…" she quickly said, feeling flustered.

Neji did not give her a straight reply. "Fate sometimes trusts undeniable duties to those that it favors, and these tasks, both infrequent and frequent, cannot be avoided or thrown aside no matter how the wills of mere mortals might try…but we are not mortals, Tenten, and you must remember that."

Tenten smiled slightly, and said, "Uh, alright, whatever that has to do with me disturbing you to go down to breakfast…"

Neji looked at her incredulously, his lips twitching slightly, with either an unsaid rebuke or a smile of amusement Tenten found it impossible to tell. "You disturbed my meditation for something as trivial as the morning meal?"

"Well, it's not _trivial_, Neji. 'Breakfast is the most important meal of the day', remember!" she said, wagging her finger at him playfully. But Neji wasn't paying attention. He had already assumed his old position, his eyelids shut and his mind obviously elsewhere.

The female of the two sighed.

"Blast all werewolf brutes to the end of the world, I'll get breakfast myself and spill the leftovers over his glossy hair."

-

Well, that's not how it went down, because Tenten had always been curious as to what would happen if you did something to harm Neji's precious locks, but she wasn't insane enough to actually test her theories. The people who would try to dirty the Pack Alpha's hair were classified as suicidal, depressed and ALMOST to the suicidal stage, insane, or mentally unstable.

She decided to strap on her bass and go outside to pluck a few notes, and if that got too depressing, pick up her precious tenor saxophone and tootle complicated music, (that was one instrument that she was good at, having kept it with her for five years now).

The air outside was humid and muggy, but the wind was whipping and ice cold. It was a sure sign that rain was coming, and possibly a very large storm. She sighed and plugged the cord into an electric socket just inside the doorway, jamming it open with one of Ino's romance novels.

Tuning took a long time, but Tenten was in an alright mood, so she let the poor instrument be and plucked a C scale. She shrugged. Not bad. Only 5 missed notes. Wait. There were 8 in a scale. Never mind, then.

She set it down, deciding that her earlier impulse for changing an instrument was extremely inaccurate, and stuck the reed for her sax in her mouth, trying without success to whistle around it as she adjusted the screws and pushed in the head joint.

Her tone was good today, and she played with a loud full sound, a sad lullaby that she had made up in the depressing months after her disappearance from her family. "I wonder what they're doing now," she thought, as she played a verse with an echoing pattern, the keys clacking slightly.

She sighed, rubbing her slightly stiff lips, and laid the saxophone carefully back into the case, still fully assembled, and gazed off into the sky.

"That was a sad song," said a voice behind her. She jumped and nearly screamed before she saw that it was Neji.

"Neji-kun, don't do that again!" she scolded, crossing her arms and making room for him to sit down.

"Did you write it?" he asked, not taking the seat but crossed his arms in turn and leaned casually against the tree. Tenten squinted off into the horizon, knowing that he didn't like people looking at him directly while holding this kind of conversation.

"Yes and no. I've never put it down in notes. My handwriting's illegible," she laughed. "But it's in here." She thumped her fist over her heart. "If my life had a theme song, this would be it, Neji-kun. Have you ever had that feeling with a song?"

Neji didn't answer for a moment, weighing his answers.

"Iie, I have not," he finally replied, his voice carved into stone. Something gave way in Tenten's stomach. She realized it was disappointment. "Oh. Ano…do you play any instruments, Neji-kun?" she said, awkwardly filling in the silence. Neji was silent again. She was used to it, and she waited patiently.

"Hai."

He didn't elaborate. "What types?" she prompted.

Another pause. "It was required to have at least 5 years of piano training in the Hyuuga compound. From there, I learned how to play acoustic guitar. Why do you ask?"

Tenten struggled to compose her face into a stony, unfazed look, but she was finding it difficult to conceal her surprise that Neji would play any instruments at all. The tough Pack Alpha hardly seemed a whimsical, musical type. Therefore, she hardly dared ask her next question.

"Would you want to…join our band?"

Neji looked at her full on, his expression twitching with incredulity. "You are in a band?"

Tenten blushed unwillingly with embarrassment. "Ano, uh, sort-of. We're not exactly great." Neji speculated her expression, studying it carefully. "The Uchiha's in it, isn't he?"

Tenten froze. If she lied, and he came, (still unlikely), he'd see for himself anyways. Yet she knew there was no way that Neji would join a band with his Beta. Sasuke was only second-in-charge because he was the second-strongest and second-oldest male wolf. It had nothing to do with personal relationships. Neji and Sasuke resented each other.

"H-Hai, he is, Neji-kun," she finally hesitantly replied.

Neji nodded, seeming to consider her and appreciate that she had chosen to tell him the truth. She had the uncomfortable squeamish feeling that he could read her mind, as she often did in his presence.

"When is your next practice?" he haltingly asked. Tenten started.

"N-Nani?"

"When is your next practice?" he repeated, seeming slightly amused at her dumbfounded facial features. Self-consciously, she quickly rearranged them into what she hoped was a mask of I-don't-care indifference.

"Ano, I'm not sure. Ino plans them randomly. But I'll tell you when I know," she said hastily in one breath. Neji stared at her coldly for a moment. Then he nodded once.

He furrowed his brow, and reached out to finger the brush-like end of Tenten's hair curiously, which was braided into a long, brunette plait that had swung over her shoulder. Her bangs were all over her face, sticky with perspiration. "No buns?" he asked, sounding the least bit surprised.

Tenten had to laugh, and she did. He glanced at her sharply, releasing her hair. "What, do you think that I was born with buns on my head? I do have hair, you know," she joked.

Neji didn't answer, but his lips twitched slightly. "Iie, merely surprised," she said, and turned to go.

Tenten fell back dreamily against the tree, feeling like she was on Cloud 9 and not really sure why, absently disengaging her tenor sax. She had held many more intimate conversations than this with Neji, her best friend, in the past. Why did she feel like her heart was too big in her chest, but in a good way?

"_Isn't this what Ino said 'love' felt like?_" she wondered.

**_But Neji?_** snorted her other self. **_Yeah right._**

"_Why is it so impossible?_" she countered immediately, not even realizing that she was one, going into defense mode, and two, arguing with herself.

_**Easy. He has about as much emotion as a cheese cube.**_

"_Why a cheese cube?"_

_**/Shrug/ I dunno. Just thought it was amusing. Neji the Cheesecube. Haha.**_

"_Dang, you have really bad humor. Am I really that non-funny?"_

_**Of course.**_

"_Ok, now that was going to far."_

_**Oh. Gomen.**_

-

The realization that she was in love with the Pack Alpha did little to make Tenten more coordinated. From the time of going back into the orphanage and dinner, she managed to run into three walls, fall down the back stairs, and trip Tsunade.

"Gomen, gomen!" she repeated over and over to the various people she crashed into.

After a dinner of unrecognizable grey gruel, (Tsunade said that today's dish was Meat Casserole Surprise), she treaded wearily up to her dorm, and found Hinata sitting on the bed, her shoulders shaking and her head in her hands.

She hurried over anxiously to her friend. "Hinata-chan? Daijoubu?" she asked, even though she knew it obviously wasn't.

Hinata shook her head and sobbed harder. Tenten hugged her furiously, and murmured, "Shhhh," into her ebony hair, which was still cut short like it always was but now sticky and wet with tears.

"What's the matter?" she asked finally when Hinata had quieted down a little.

Her friend looked down. "Naruto-kun loves Sakura-chan."

Tenten smiled grimly. "Hinata-chan, look at me." Hinata kept looking down. Tenten pulled her face up and pulled her lips into a smile.

"Listen, alright? Hinata, you're a beautiful person, and Naruto's truly an idiot if he has no idea how wonderful you really are. OK? It's not the end of the world! I'm sure it's just puppy love."

Hinata shook her head, but smiled slightly at Tenten through her tears anyways. "Iie, Tenten-chan, that's not what I'm crying about."

Tenten was confused and utterly lost now. "But you said-"

"I know. I meant that he can never love me the way he loves Sakura-chan, even if it is puppy love," she explained, her voice cracking slightly. Tenten laughed slightly, hoping that Hinata would laugh too. "What do you mean?"

Hinata shook her head again. "I'm human. Werewolves can't love a human."

"You say it like being mortal is a bad thing," Tenten said gently, patting her tentatively on the back. Hinata sobbed softly, and Tenten squeezed her around the shoulders. "It is. It's terrible," she said quietly.

Tenten laughed now, truly laughed. "Hinata, you have no idea what it's like to 'play with your food'." Hinata laughed now too, slightly, her shoulders shaking with mirth.

"Still, Naruto-kun can never love me," she finally said.

-

"Naruto, I think you need to have a talk with Hinata," Tenten said later, catching up with the blonde outside. Naruto looked at her, utterly confused.

"Hinata-chan? I talked to her this morning! I asked her for more toothpaste," he complained. "What are you on my case about?"

Tenten sweatdropped. "God, Naruto, you will never be able to comprehend the complex mind of a woman." Naruto shook his head violently. "What does that mean?" Tenten sweatdropped again. "It just means that 'Hell hath no fury like a scorned woman,'" she muttered under her breath.

"Still, why do you want me to talk to Hinata-chan?" Naruto prompted, obviously trying to prove he wasn't as stupid and immature as Tenten thought he really was.

"Naruto, you honestly have no idea?" Naruto shook his head, completely unaware.

"You seriously, _seriously_ don't know?"

Another shake.

"Then maybe I'm not the right person to be having this discussion with you," she said, and stalked away, incredulous at his unawareness. She heard Naruto's footsteps pounding after her, trying to catch up, but she conveniently vanished into a secret side corridor and amused herself by seeing him swivel his head outside, wondering where she had gone.

-

"Now, what was that for?" said a voice behind her in the dark.

Tenten started and bumped into the solid chest of Hyuuga Neji.

"Neji-kun, what are you doing here?" she hissed, slightly annoyed and also blushing hotly at the realization that she was pinned against him on the wall. Neji's breath was clouding on her forehead, hard and irregular, his arms creating a cage around her. She bit her lip, sure that he could feel the heat rising from her skin.

"Tenten, you need to stop interfering with Pack business," he said through gritted teeth, looking down at her. Tenten felt slightly miffed that he had at last won their height contest from years ago, in their childhood.

"Oh, so Naruto crushing on Sakura is _Pack_ business now? Neji-kun, you all of all people should know that he'll get over it in less than a month!" Neji paused, his breath still uneven and unusually loud in the cramped corridor.

"Iie, Tenten, you getting Naruto to talk to Hinata, _my_ cousin, might I remind you, is a problem," he hissed, pounding the heel of his hand against the wall. Tenten thought she heard a faint splinter.

"What's wrong with that?" she replied hotly, angry now.

"Do you know how much _danger_ you're putting her in, letting Naruto be around her alone too much?" he roared.

Tenten looked back up at him defiantly, studying his blazing white eyes with interest. "Iie, I think that letting the girl die of emotional heartbreak is just a bit beyond the line of cruel and unusual punishment," she replied calmly.

Neji roared and stormed out of the corridor, and Tenten smiled to herself, trying to celebrate her triumph, but finding that she could only feel sadness for fighting with him.

**A/N: Hope you like it! NejiTen fluff.**


	7. Teachings

**A/N: Hi! Notice: I'm better at writing SasuSaku and NejiTen than InoShikaTema and NaruHina. Just to give you a heads up.**

**And are there ANY other werewolf stories in Naruto? If there are, could you post the link in a review? I'd like to read some…and kill-I mean, give commentary, to the writers! Heh heh. Sweatdrop.**

-

**Traveling Moon,**

**Glory Phase:**

**Teachings**

-

"_Is it necessary for me to jump up and down at the good news? I have back problems."_

_-Scar, THE LION KING_

-

"Matsuri, you do it like this," said a patient Gaara.

"Hai, Gaara-sensei!"

The petite girl carefully tried to change the tips of her fingers into long, lethal claws and cried out in delight when it worked after five fruitless tries. She flexed her fingers experimentally, gaping in awe as her claws drew blood easily from her palms, which healed almost immediately.

Gaara looked at her approvingly, his face indifferent, but the way his eyes flashed slightly told Matsuri that her master was satisfied.

The art of transforming partway between the wolf and human forms was something that was both revered and feared among wolves. It could be a powerful weapon and skill to have, but at the same time, they were unsure if it caused any real permanent harm upon the werewolf's life span or body.

"Arigato, Gaara-sensei!" she cried out in delight, hugging him tightly around the waist. Gaara winced and Matsuri's face transformed into shock as she looked at her long claws, dripping with fresh blood. Eight large gashes in Gaara's back instantly healed, but his clothes were ruined. He pried her off and stepped back.

"Be careful with those, Matsuri," he chided, quickly transforming his own fingers into even sharper claws. "You could hurt somebody or yourself."

Matsuri was about to open her mouth to protest when Gaara cut her off.

"No arguments. This particular talent is not only lethal to enemies: if you are careless, you will die," he stated, a breeze from nowhere in particular ruffling his brilliant hair and making it seem like leaping flames for a moment. Silver beams of moonlight shone down on his glittering green eyes. Matsuri gazed in awe at her teacher, and nodded, sure that nobody could ever hurt the magnificent wolf standing next to her.

"Hai, Gaara-sensei!"

-

"Eh, Hinata-chan? Tenten wanted me to talk to you," said one slightly embarrassed Naruto one day, his hand absently twitching back to rub the back of his head.

Hinata looked up abruptly from sketching a beautiful dress that she would have liked to have to wear to the end-of-year event, red almost immediately grazing her face and her white eyes widening innocently. "N-Naruto-kun? What are y-you doing h-here?" she stammered, leaping up and hastily smoothing down her T-shirt, feeling underdressed.

Naruto laughed, oblivious. "Tenten, Hinata-chan! I just said so."

Hinata turned redder and looked down. "Hai, N-Naruto-kun, gomen."

Naruto sat down and bounced slightly before settling on Hinata's bed, picking up her sketch and smiling at it. "You're a good drawer, Hinata-chan!" he said honestly and seriously now, studying the sketch closely. "That's a really pretty dress."

Hinata smiled slightly and beamed with pleasure. "A-Arigato."

"Well, whaddya want to talk about?" said Naruto happily. "I'm not really sure why Tenten wanted me to talk to you so much. She didn't say. Isn't that funny? You don't think that I'm ignoring you, right? I would be sad if you did," he said, pouting slightly.

Hinata giggled slightly and sat down next to him.

"_Arigato, Tenten-chan,_" she thought. Her friend really did know the cures to these type of blue moments.

"W-Would you like me to design a d-dress for y-you too?" she asked shyly, meaning it for a joke. Unfortunately, Naruto took her seriously and looked slightly awkward to have to refuse such a "generous" offer.

"Ano, Hinata-chan…I'm really sorry, but I don't think I really need one right now."

Hinata giggled louder this time, smiling at Naruto widely. "I w-was joking, Naruto-kun."

Naruto chuckled nervously. "Ano, I knew that!" Then he, too smiled widely and started to laugh. "You could design me a dress, though. Maybe Sakura-chan would think I look nicer in one," he mused thoughtfully.

Hinata's face fell minimally for a moment, but it was long enough for Naruto to notice the abrupt change. "What's wrong, Hinata-chan?" he said, sounding genuinely concerned. "You don't think I would look beautiful in a dress?"

Hinata smiled weakly. "Iie, that's n-not it at all, Naruto-kun," she murmured softly.

"What is it, then?" Naruto said sincerely. "Whatever it is, I'll do whatever I can to fix it for you. Whoever hurts you ever will have to deal with me."

Inwardly, Hinata was suffering with an ironic personal joke: Naruto was going to have to deal with himself. Outwardly, she decided to better be honest and just let out with the truth of it all.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

"Hai, Hinata-chan?" he said seriously, his cerulean eyes wide and earnest. "What can I do?" he added eagerly. Hinata's eyes widened slightly, red spreading to her ears quickly like wildfire. But she found that when she opened her lips to say what she wanted, nothing came out. She quickly shut them tight again.

"It's n-nothing," she said instead.

Naruto studied her carefully. "Hinata-chan, I would do anything for you if you just asked, you know. If anybody ever hurts you, then I don't think I could live with myself."

Hinata's eyes were brimming with unshed tears now, but Naruto, if he noticed, gave no sign and ignored them. "A-Arigato, N-Naruto-kun. A-Arigato."

-

Hinata rubbed her eyes and yawned, sitting up out of bed and realizing that it was actually the middle of the night and she was not about to sink her teeth into a bite of birthday cake like in her dream.

She also realized that she was very thirsty, and yawning again, got up and padded slowly out the door and down the steps, feeling for each next step with her toes and shivering at the cold wood bit into her skin.

She casually flipped on the light switch once she got down there, but froze at what she saw.

The entire Pack was there, sitting across from the four of the foreign Pack.

Their faces were serious, and they had obviously been in discussion about something a moment before she had interrupted. Obviously, they could see in the dark where her human eyes could not and the light had not been necessary.

Out of all of them, Naruto's was the only face that did not show immediate concern for her. Instead, he looked pleasantly surprised to see her, and jumped out of his chair brightly and bustled to heat her up cup ramen.

Subaku no Gaara gazed at her coldly, his features hungry, and bared his fanged teeth. Neji growled low in his throat at him. "You touch her and you die," he said, though his actions already made that clear. "You will never harm a member of my family."

Hinata, though she felt fast tremors of fear rocking her at Gaara's ravenous expression, was startled to hear Neji use the word "family". He was never one to emphasize his close relationships with people, preferring to be detached and work as a single unit. It was nice, though, for a change, to know that she had a family. The Pack was her family. It was good to know that for certain, that they would protect her with their lives and she do the same for them, (though she doubted she could do much to protect a werewolf where they could not protect themselves).

"As we were," Temari said coldly, reminding them all of why they were there.

Sasuke nodded curtly at her. "As we were saying before the interruption, we do not feel comfortable about your Pack staying on our territory for much longer. We will be happy to accommodate your needs while you find another hunting ground, but this is marked territory, and it would be dangerous for us to push the human limits," he explained calmly, directly addressing Gaara.

Gaara looked openly hostile, but did not dare start a fight, as they were badly outnumbered. Naruto set down the steaming cup of ramen in front of a shaking Hinata, telling her under his breath to eat up quickly, and draped a blanket carefully around her shoulders. She didn't know where he had gotten it so quickly. With a start, she looked up and found that he had draped his pajama shirt over her, and that his chest was now bare.

She blushed vividly, and Naruto, taking it for guilt about taking his own clothes, shook his head and smiled at her. "I don't get cold, you know. Werewolves are pretty high in body temperature." Gaara's cold, prying eyes rested longer than they should have on the shivering human girl, his fangs still razor sharp.

He made an ominous cracking sound of his jaw. Temari and Kankurou looked slightly fearful at the sadistic glint in their Alpha's eye, the pale face igniting with an insane light. This wolf was powerful, and he was hungry for human flesh. The only one at the table that now didn't look on edge and alert was Matsuri, who gazed with concern at her master's features.

She put a hand on his arm, the small, tiny pale fingers digging into the cloth of his sleeve and brushing against his arm. "Gaara-sensei, what's the matter?" she murmured. Gaara shook off her arm and snarled at Neji

"What is she to you? My Pack is hungry."

Hinata felt cold sweat beading on her forehead. Now was the moment of truth. Was she worth enough to the Pack if they could stop a fight from breaking out if they just sent her with Gaara, where they would pick her bone to bone for sure? Another shiver.

She felt tremendous gratitude when a feral snarl ripped out of Neji's inner throat, his eyes glinting dangerously. "Hinata means more to me than you could ever understand," he growled. "She is true family, and you have none of the close bonds that holds our Pack together. That is what makes us strong."

Naruto had unconsciously moved to shield Hinata from view, his blue eyes narrowed. "Hinata-chan, don't worry about him. I'll rip him limb from limb if I have to!" he said, sounding almost cheerful at the prospect. Hinata tentatively laid an arm on his shoulder.

"Daijoubu, N-Naruto-kun…you d-don't have to d-do that for m-me."

Naruto smiled brightly back at her. "I'd do a lot of things for you, Hinata-chan! Just sit back and don't move too much. We'll take care of this. Go back up to bed."

Hinata tripped over her chair as she pushed it back, the grating sound of the legs against kitchen tile creating a screeching sound in the air. She winced, feeling like it was the loudest sound in the world. Every pair of wolf eyes followed her out of the room until she was out of sight range when she turned up the steps.

-

She had trouble getting back to sleep after that, but somewhere between four and six she must have dropped off, because the next thing she knew, something had woken her up.

When she realized what it was, her scream of terror died in her throat. Subaku no Gaara's calm face looked down at her, his red hair falling into his face, his arms crossed casually. There was nobody else in the room.

"Ohayo, Hinata-san," he said coldly.

-

Hinata had no idea what happened next. One moment, there was the terror of her life standing over her, no doubt about to make turkey of her, and then the next there was a cherry-furred wolf in his place, snarling violently, and tangled in a battle of fur and limbs with a brilliantly gold wolf in the middle of the bunks.

When she had gotten her bearings, she felt a plummet of sheer terror when she realized that the other wolf must have been Naruto. The snout was too wide for it to be Ino, and the paws too big. "N-Naruto-kun!" she screamed, trying to get up but realizing that her limbs were frozen.

The wise blue eyes of the gold wolf looked up at her, and she realized that they were not the joyful ones of Naruto. This was the wolf-Naruto, the one who wanted to taste her flesh just as much as Gaara, but was fighting him because he cared about her. Because she was his friend. She could have burst into tears from confusion right then and there.

Gaara, sensing the sudden weakness, howled in triumph and lunged at her, his front claws digging into his sheets, his yellowing teeth snapping inches away from her throat. This time, Hinata did scream, a bloodcurdling one nonetheless, but he never got there.

Naruto had bit into his scruff and was violently hauling him back, his eyes frantic. Gaara's claw dug into the back of Hinata's hand and she cried out in pain, blood speckling the sheets. Both wolves froze, their eyes fixed, starving, on the dripping blood.

Hinata froze too. "Iie," she whispered. "This isn't happening."

Gaara's muscles bunched to spring, but Naruto beat him there. His eyes had turned red and frenzied. This was not the beloved, idiotic boy that she knew. This was the beast that was trapped within him.

Before she could even think the word "run", his teeth had sunk into the base of her neck, the pain deep and more than physical. She blacked out.

**A/N: Ooh, cliffy.**


	8. Different

**A/N: I'm trying to update faster…and I know that you guys were probably waiting for this chapter. I think you might be a bit surprised at the outcome, if not furious. (Heh heh…) It's a bit of a more philosophical chapter. Also, before, I narrated in a close-third-person type thing, switching off girls in each chapter. It's going to be a bit different from now on, it'll switch from person to person in no particular order. There will also be a more dominant SasuSaku NejiTen streak.**

-

**Traveling Moon,**

**Glory Phase:**

**Different**

-

"'_I am _loup-garou._'"_

_-Vivian, BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE_

(Note: _loup-garou_ basically means "werewolf".)

-

"Is she awake?"

"Oh, my God, I think she is!"

"Don't startle her, alright? She's just been through a lot, and I don't want anybody to scare her more once she's awake."

"We know, we're not stupid."

The jabbering voices crowded around the tiny bunk bed immediately shushed as the girl lying in the bed groaned, and shifted slightly, her soft features wincing slightly as she twisted her neck and the bloody mass of scab there cracked slightly.

She sat up slowly, looking disoriented and like she had no idea where she was. "Nani ga Nani?" she mumbled, her pale eyes wide and confused. She winced again as she turned her head, and her fingertips touched the massacred area of her neck. Realization swam onto her face. "N-Naruto-kun!" she said, sounding slightly relieved to see him there, looking worried but fine.

"A-Am I…like y-you now?" she said, trying to clear her head.

Sakura shook her head, looking immensely relieved. "We managed to get the venom out before it could infect your system. You might like your steaks rare from now on, though," she said happily. "Hinata, you're still perfectly human. No need to worry."

A rush of disappointment showed on Hinata's face. "You…wanted to be like us, didn't you?" said Ino sympathetically. "Hinata-chan, trust us, it's better this way."

Hinata shook her head slightly, carefully trying to avoid the huge scab. "Iie. I d-don't see the p-point of being h-human when my only f-friends are not. Once y-you leave here for s-somewhere else, I'll h-have no life at a-all."

There was silence to that.

Everybody seemed to turn and face Neji, whose face was immobile. If they were to change Hinata, it would all hinge on his decision. Slowly, he nodded his head. "It's her decision," he said shortly. "She will always have a place among us, whichever way she chooses."

Hinata felt a smile break on her face as everybody else smiled warmly back at her. Naruto looked up, his cerulean eyes full of something incomprehensible. "Hinata-chan, we don't live a happy life, you know," he said softly to her, sitting down on the bed and patting her hand. "You'd be much happier as a human, and we can't reverse the process if you regret your choice."

Hinata looked away and shook her head stubbornly, biting her lip at the pain in her neck. "Naruto-kun, I h-have no life b-besides you." When she realized what she had said, she flushed brilliant crimson, having meant to say "besides you guys".

Naruto, however, didn't seem to notice the difference. "Hinata-chan, that's not a good life for you to have. You're one of my best friends, and I wouldn't want to give you this life, especially since you have a choice in the matter."

Hinata bit her lip again, this time more gently. "Then I'll t-try to find a w-way myself. Onegai, N-Naruto-kun!"

Naruto's facial expression shifted slightly. Flickers of his heaving emotions mirrored onto his worried blue eyes. He remembered his human life before the Pack took him in quite well, and he thought he knew what Hinata was talking about. She had no family, and it was her decision in the end….

He smiled widely. "Let's try to change you in a less painful method, then," he said quietly, sounding guilty about having caused her a lot of pain. Hinata tried to nod bravely. "It d-doesn't hurt v-very much, N-Naruto-kun," she murmured.

"Still, Hinata-chan, I vowed to protect you, remember? I wasn't supposed to try and eat you. It wasn't part of the plan," he said sheepishly.

Hinata was curious, however, as to other methods of making a person a werewolf. "H-How…?" she started, but Naruto seemingly read her mind.

"You'll see," he replied, winking.

-

The shafting sunlight was filtered into an eerie green color by the tall canopy of the forest trees. Hinata breathed in a breath full of the smell of moist earth and the spicy odor of an unknown tree species. She smiled happily; glad to be away from the smog of the city.

Naruto and Neji tramped together on either side of her, their faces immobile and serious. Hinata quickly sobered, too. This was a serious occasion. Her heart thumped loudly against her ribcage and adrenaline raced through her veins. She let out a big breath. This was it.

"Here," said Neji abruptly, stopping. Hinata looked around. She couldn't see anything much different in this patch of forest than any that they had passed so far. The trees had less moss and it was more muddy and more spacious, but there was nothing very extraordinary about it on its own.

"Naruto?" said Neji expectantly. Naruto's frame shuddered and fell away as the boy dropped into a wolf, fur shooting into his growing pelt, his eyes wise and peaceful, nothing like the bloodthirsty ones that Hinata had witnessed earlier. Carefully, he imprinted his paw into a patch of smooth mud. The result was a perfect imitation of the bottom of his paw: pads, claws, and all.

Neji quickly dumped the water collected in a nearby treeleaf into the pawprint. "Drink," he instructed shortly, turning to Hinata. The surprise must have registered on her face, because Neji's expression softened slightly.

"Legend speaks of a man who drank from the paw print of a werewolf because he was thirsty. He became like us within the hour."

Her fingers trembling, Hinata bent forward over the imprint, and drank.

-

The Moon thoughtfully rose over the blurred line of a mauve colored horizon line. The colors of a finishing sunset, duller than sea dirt and yet more brilliant than any painter's brightest paints, sang of goodbyes and sorrow. The Moon Herself, however, paid no mind.

The laughing, rounded silver face glowed with ecstasy and seemed to smile brilliantly down at her terrain, the silvery essence reflecting off solids and seemingly woven into the black waves of a lake. She didn't seem to be up in the sky; the sky seemed to be there to emphasize her pearly pallor. The stars sparkled, twinkled, and glittered playfully, some mere pinpricks of light, silvery like lead; others were like drops of molten gold that had never been cleared away. They clung to the ebony cloth of the sky stubbornly, winking at the world and making the Moon not seem quite so intimidating. A pleasant, yet bitingly cold, breeze ruffled the tops of the trees, making a howl meander through the air. Mere shadows of the wispy clouds floated across the sky and moon, like pieces of cotton stuck to cloth. Down in the mortal world, an inhuman howl sounded; loud, clear, and eerie.

Hinata had never felt anything like the irresistible first transformation. At first, she had felt a sort of crawling that made her want to laugh starting up her back, which could be compared to having your leg fall asleep and then trying to walk on it. Her frame trembled. She had doubled over and felt panic seize her when her tailbone felt like it had just escaped her body. You can imagine her surprise when she turned around to see a tall, tufted tail. A tickling sensation started up all over as thick, luscious silver fur sprouted all over and tufted ears sprang out of her head, her human ears disappearing into the fur ruff. A howl blew out of her throat as her face lengthened into a vixen-like snout, her fingers shrinking back and the pleasant sensation of claws shooting out of them as she fell to all fours.

Ecstasy and adrenaline were threatening to overwhelm her system. Joy bubbled up within herself, and she felt as if she were one with the earth. She howled once again, full and happy, toward the Moon, thanking Her for granting her the power to feel this sort of happiness.

To her surprise, there was a returning howl, and she looked down to face the golden-furred Naruto, who's eyes were shining at her brightly. To her other side, the immense form of Neji barked sternly, warning them to keep it down, but he too was trembling slightly with excitement.

Hinata was overwhelmed by the intensity of everything: two distinct scents in the air were Naruto and Neji, mixed with that of thousands of woodland creatures and scents. Her eyesight had multiplied in precision tenfold, and her fur stood up on end because of all the sensory that she could feel now: every tiny pebble digging into her paw pads, every slight breeze ruffling her pelt. She felt overwhelmed, yes, but strangely there was no panic and no fear: only slight pangs of regret of not being able to feel this sooner.

So she ran, the pure joy of the flight picking her up on invisible wings, her tongue lolling out and the wind tugging teasingly at her silvery fur, making it fly up and for a moment, bore her on invisible wings. The rhythmic thudding of their paws hitting the uneven terrain was the only sound to be heard. Unheard howls barricaded her throat as she choked on emotion.

She yelped in pleased surprise when Neji's assertive voice floated into her head, more clearly than if he had spoken to her, as images and emotions flooded her mind along with the message.

_Hinata, you must hunt._

She stopped abruptly, the adrenaline flushing from her veins. She whimpered at Neji and he growled back. She found that she understood: for the safety of the Pack, she must hunt in the forest to sate her forbidden appetite.

Instinctively, she opened her mouth and let scent flood her senses. There was a juicy rabbit, quite old, hiding the bush right behind her. Snarling, she pounced and dragged it out as it struggled, killing it with one lethal bite to the neck. She panted, feeling remorse for the killing of an innocent creature, but the juicy meat called to her, and it was only bones before long.

Neji gave a nod of approval, but Naruto looked slightly sad, as if guessing her sad feelings.

_Hinata-chan, leave it._

She howled mournfully at him, and Naruto padded over and brushed consolingly against her flank.

_Gomen._

His mind's voice was startlingly sorrowful, and he sloppily licked the juncture of her neck and shoulder apologetically. Her skin flushed, but Hinata was relieved to find that with the thick wolf pelt, it was impossible to tell. With delight, she noticed that the ugly scab there had long ago fallen away and healed at werewolf speed.

_Iie, I should b-be saying a-arigato, Naruto-kun._

She was slightly disappointed that she even stuttered in her own mind, but she shrugged it off. The close proximity with Naruto did not seem to bother her as much in her new wolf form, as it was impossible for wolves not to be close physically like this.

_Let's go back. Catch me if you can!_

Happily, she bounded after his vanishing plume of tail.

-

She was met by mad squealing back in the girl's dormitory. Ino couldn't seem to stop screaming, and even Tenten looked happy at the odd occasion.

"What color?" said Ino.

"S-Silver," stuttered the once-again-human Hinata, now finding panic among her confused emotions again.

"Ooh, I wish I were that pretty," said Ino wistfully, flopping back onto her bed. Sakura laughed and kicked her playfully. Ino frowned.

"That hurt."

"I know."

Unnoticed by the girls, one very angry Subaku no Gaara stood in the shadows behind the fluttering curtain dividing the boys and girls in the dormitory. His arms were crossed, his black-lined eyes looked sinister and evil in the dark as he narrowed them to furious slits.

"Daijoubu deska, Gaara-sensei?" asked a timid Matsuri, feeling the aura of wrath surrounding her master. Gaara merely growled low in his throat and turned to look at Matsuri. Matsuri shrank from his gaze, sensing that she had undoubtedly picked a bad time to be holding conversation with her teacher.

"G-Gomen, Gaara-sensei," she mumbled.

She turned to go, but Gaara's flat voice stopped her. "Matsuri. Come back."

She meekly turned, sure that some horrible punishment was awaiting her. Woe to the one who fell to Gaara's unpredictable and lethal temper! Instead, his green eyes seemed calmer now, his arms nonchalantly hanging by his sides.

"I am not angry with you," he explained coldly, and the younger wolf was glad to hear that the note of anger was gone from his voice. "Hai," she replied.

"You have not done anything wrong," he continued.

"Hai."

He hesitated, pausing slightly.

"If I did anything to hurt you, then you have my apologies."

Matsuri was surprised at this last statement, but she just bowed and hurriedly scurried away. Temari materialized seemingly out of nowhere behind her Alpha, a smirk planted on her mobile face, her hair as in disarray as ever it was. Her eyes, more beautiful and full of feeling than her brother's, held the knowledge of a personal joke. The sound of her platform shoes clinked to a stop just behind him. Gaara did not acknowledge her presence. He did not need to. The slight stiffening of his shoulders was enough.

"You love her," Temari stated matter-of-factly, smirking. She would not have dared gone so out of line before, in the unstable changes after her brother's first transformations, but now he was quite approachable. She was rather amused at the moment.

Gaara did not reply, and Temari stalked past him, pushing aside the curtain with an elaborate wave of her elegant arm. She turned to look at her brother, who's face was like stone and his arms folded once more, though this time defensively over his chest.

"Think about what I said, brother," chirped the female, and swept out of the room.

-

"Sasuke-kun, I'm worried," stated an agitated Sakura, pacing around the dormitory in the peace of the next day's afternoon. Sasuke did not move, immobile and sitting casually on Sakura's unmade bed, but his lip twitched slightly.

"About what," he stated, making it sound like it was not a question at all.

"Hinata, of course!" Sakura stated, glaring at him. "She's a new werewolf. New werewolves attract attention. If she attracts too much, we'd have to leave, which would in turn set off more attention. Don't get me wrong, I love Hinata and everything, but…" she trailed off, waiting for Sasuke to make a contribution to the conversation.

He didn't, merely followed her frantic pacing with his expressionless eyes, though Sakura could easily tell that he was amused. She blew a raspberry at him. Sasuke smirked.

"God, I have no idea why Neji made you the Beta," she said exasperatedly when he continued to be silent, (though she didn't really mean it). Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"Could you have done a better job?"

"Maybe so!"

"Then you can take my place in the trials coming up," he stated, getting up and naturally towering over her, his eyes smoldering with anger. Sakura's own face paled. "T-Trials? They're doing that?"

Sasuke shook his hair out of his face impatiently. Sakura stared at his perfect features, feeling her heart shattering inside. "Y-You're going to fight in the trials?"

Sasuke glared at her. "I am the Pack Beta. In a fight for territory, the opposing Packs send their Alpha and Beta, if they have one, to fight. Surely you must have anticipated this."

Sakura sat down on the bed, her knees suddenly weak. "Iie, rather, I didn't," she murmured.

"Hn," said Sasuke, walking out of the room. "I don't want you involved anyways…you would only hinder me."

**A/N: Oooh suspense.**


	9. Angel's Music

**A/N: Hi. I was taking a little break from writing for a while there. Anyways, I'm back from my sabbatical, and I hope that I'm ready to roll. **

**Thank you very much for the wonderful reviews, (both long and short, xD). Personally, I'd say that this fanfiction's plot is a heck of a lot better spaced out than The Perfect Place, which was basically written because I had writer's block and felt like writing Naruto to ease it off. However, I'm overly critical of myself, and I think that I could still write better, rereading the first few chapters…**

**Anyways, thanks again for the reviews. Sorry for making you break your curfew though, ShadowCritter!**

**Here's the chapter…make what you will of it.**

-

**Traveling Moon,**

**Humming Phase:**

**Angel's Music**

-

_Black is my pain, and dead is my heart._

-

In a third person point of view, the room looked perfectly normal. It was on the risk of becoming monotonous to observe it.

But that was in a third person point of view, and what did a clueless narrator really know about the intricate patterns of human relationships? Feelings were wrapped within each other, emotions in disguise as each other. Ingredients of people's feelings were mixed into the thick air, like improperly brewed soup.

In first person, Haruno Sakura was in pieces.

This is to say, figuratively in pieces. You weren't in danger of finding an elusive limb hiding under a bunk, but her pain was at the moment so great that she almost considered that physical pain might be better.

Her heart was made of glass and it had shattered the Cinderella's shoe that hadn't ever been properly manufactured. Her face was imbedded safely into her pillow, her tears streaming out into the cotton and her body wracked with sobs.

_Sasuke was going to fight in the trials._

The words floated on the edge of her conscious mind. She hatefully shoved them away. Would he ever come back?

A werewolf trial usually occurred when two Packs wanted to fight for one piece of land, or a Pack leader had died unnaturally and the Pack had no heir, (Beta or child). If Sasuke really had meant it about leaving with Neji, then they would most likely be gone for half a year at least. The fight would traditionally take place at Nirvana, a tiny oasis in the middle of a desert far away. Also traditionally, they would be forced to travel on foot.

Once they got there…

They would fight to the death.

The sobs choked up in her throat. Her cries died and shriveled. She was crumpled, she was dying, she was sure of it. Sasuke was infallible, reasoned her very unrealistic inner self. He can't die.

Yes he can, thought her rational self.

A third voice, a very unhelpful one, suddenly popped up in her head. The three-way conversation was very confusing.

_**Shannaro, our Sasuke-kun's going to kick butt!**_

_Urusai. Who said that we had to share?_

_Sasuke-kun's going to die._

_He can't die. I'd kill myself._

_**Killing yourself is so out of fashion.**_

_Who asked you?_

_**Well, technically, you because you're me.**_

_Did anybody get that? _

_HELLO? GOODBYE!_

She shook her head and angrily wiped away the tears, standing up and sauntering into the bathroom. In the mirror, the furious red color was high in her cheeks, and the swelling from the tears was already going down. The red looked almost attractive against her pale skin, but Sakura only glanced at it before coming back out again.

The pink-haired young wolf took a deep, shuddering breath and pushed open the door of the dorm again, stepping out into the louder outside. Her breath hitched when she saw the familiar mop of ebony hair and black eyes of Uchiha Sasuke, who was lounging in a chair by the wall.

She bit her lip and forced herself to smile brightly, skipping over to him and giving him a bright, "Ohayo, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke glanced up at her, obviously bored. "Hn."

"May I sit down?" she asked, feeling like somebody else was talking. The normal words felt awkward, slipping out of her treacherous lips. Sasuke didn't answer. She took that as a yes.

"I don't have to go," he said. She glanced up at him, knowing exactly what he was talking about. "Nani?" she asked instead. He glanced down at her again, looking slightly cross now.

"I hate it when you make me repeat myself."

"Oh. Gomen." She looked down, not allowing hope to devour her worry. No need to get all excited over one of Sasuke's mysterious statements. Most of his sentences had double meanings anyways, and five bucks said that he didn't mean what she thought he meant.

"I'm only doing it for the good of the Pack," he continued as if there had been no awkward pause. "If I had my choice, I would not go so eagerly to die." Sakura flinched, and immediately felt ashamed for showing such a weakness. Sasuke, however, pretended that he had not noticed.

"Y-You don't know that," she stammered instead.

Pause. Pause.

"Perhaps," he finally replied, but she could sense the heavy doubt in his voice. There was not fear or regret. Just doubt that her words were believed by either or them. It was hurting her, beyond comprehension.

"What you said…earlier…about being a better Pack Beta than I am…I think it was true," he finally mentioned out of the blue. She looked up, surprise spelled clearly across her features. He looked at her seriously now, not just a casual glance.

"Sakura, you care about people," he finally stated after giving her face a thorough expression. She didn't push him to elaborate. She got the vibe of the message through his eyes: he was sorry that things had turned out this way. Not regretful: just sorry in a way that said he would choose another way if he could.

"Why do we have to do this anyways?" she finally blurted out. "It seems so stupid, sacrificing lives for this…thing," she said, motioning her hand in a broad arc to indicate the orphanage. Sasuke shook his head at her, looking slightly amused at what he obviously thought was ignorance.

"Iie, it's about something much more than that," he said flatly.

"Nande, then, that's so important that you go to die of your own free will?"

Another slight pause.

"Honor," he replied simply. A traitor tear slipped out of the corner of Sakura's eye. She brushed it quickly away, relieved that Sasuke had not noticed. "Oh," she murmured, afraid to let her quavering voice betray her. Awkwardly, she stood up and bit her lip again, looking at him, taking in his ethereal features: the shadow on the edge of his face, the careful disarray of his hair, the perfect ridge of his nose, and most of all, the beautiful, beautiful eyes.

"When do you leave?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"The beginning of the next phase," he replied, sounding equally nonchalant.

She turned without another word and rushed down the steps before he saw the torrent of tears gushing down her porcelain cheeks.

-

"_What??_"

Sakura stared in disbelief at Neji, who looked at her coldly. "You know perfectly well what I just said. The Uchiha was write about one thing. You're hopelessly annoying."

"He…said that?" she asked, her mind completely switching tracks.

"Hai. Now, pay attention."

"I don't want to pay attention! I thought that you and Sasuke would just leave to the oasis and fight, not having to enter a pre-battle too!" she cried.

"The other Pack is too small: we must fight to determine which two of their Pack shall come with us," Neji replied seriously, turning to leave the room. "It is traditional."

"To hell with tradition!" she yelled to his back.

-

Sasuke was alone.

He sat on his bunk, his head in his hands and his fingers splayed into his ebony hair, making it stick up at odd angles all over his head. They had elongated into semi-claws, and he felt the slight prickle where they met his scalp.

His eyes were wide open in the dark, cold sweat pouring down his face. The clamor of dinner utensils was going on downstairs, but he ignored it. Despite of his play-it-cool manner earlier, he was not embracing the idea of sacrificing himself very well.

To sum it up, his thoughts were basically along the line of, "Don't we have a stunt guy for this type of thing?"

Uchiha Sasuke was not one to avoid conflict. He was strong, stronger than Neji, (he was only Beta because he was younger and lacked the proper self control), and fighting was not something he should fear. But death, that was another matter…

A splinter of light fell on his figure, and then the room was abruptly flooded with it. He winced, his bloodshot eyes squeezing shut for a moment.

A shadow fell over him. He knew who it was. The scent was overpowering.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura's soothing voice murmured. He heard the creak of the bed as she sat down. It was dark again, and the door was closed properly. His claws elongated more, as the scent of her sweat mingled with her natural odor hit his nostrils, intoxicating him with the delicious aroma of her flesh…a growl escaped his throat.

"Daijoubu deska?" she asked softly, her voice raw and tender with concern. There was a roaring in his ears. If he opened his mouth, his fangs would grow. In the humid room, her scent was taking over everything. He clamped his lips tightly together.

"It's alright if you don't want to talk," she said quietly. "I just…never mind."

They sat like that for a while.

"Do you really have to go?" she finally asked, her voice breaking in the middle of the obvious question. "It would be really…" she took a shuddering breath, "…difficult…for you to go. For me. For you. For everybody, really."

She was about to continue when Sasuke cut her off through clenched teeth. "Don't. Do. This. To. Me."

"Nani?" she asked in a hurt, confused voice.

"Get out," he said, his voice deadly.

Her voice dripped with hurt now. "Oh. Ok."

He couldn't just leave it there. He might as well say his goodbyes right. "It's not you, Sakura. It's me. I need to hunt, and…" He took a sharp breath through his flaring nostrils, the nails elongating even further. "...you…are…killing me…."

There was a flash of understanding in her voice now. "A-Alright. Gomen."

"Stop saying that. Stop being sorry. You're annoying me. Get out."

She left, and he let loose a loud, full howl at the relief of her being gone. Yet the loneliness was somehow worse, and he wished that she could have stayed in his last happy hours.

-

He couldn't sleep last night, and neither could Sakura.

Nobody slept soundly, their muscles tense for the fight that was to come in two days. Sasuke stared holes into the top of his bunk, where Naruto was fidgeting noisily. His eyes flashed red in the dark, his senses fueled extra by adrenaline, as Sakura shifted so that the blanket fell away from her neck and the smell of it blasted into the air for a moment.

The musk of the Pack was all around him, mixed with the hostile ones of the stranger Pack. Sakura's was most prominent as usual, and it bothered him. At least his death would do one good thing: Sakura would be safer.

He was feeling something else now; not fear for his own death, but sadness. He would miss his…friends…Naruto, Sakura. Perhaps even Neji, who he had worked side by side with for so long. At least they would die together.

Subaku no Gaara would be a hard opponent.

He ground his teeth in irritation as Sakura shifted yet again and her scent in the air also intensified. She had kicked off her blankets. _Must I be tortured in my last living moments?_, he thought, agitated.

"Sasuke…kun…"

He started. Nobody else could have heard her. No, only he was this attuned. Sakura had said, no, called, his name. Silently, he got up and pushed aside the moth-eaten curtain to her bed, and bent over her.

"Sakura," he whispered.

She turned over, her luminous green eyes glaring up at him. "I need to tell you something."

"Can't it wait? I want to sleep," he lied, though he really was quite annoyed at her.

She bit her lip. "D-Do you really hate me that much?"

Pause.

"Iie."

"I annoy you, then."

"Frequently."

She took a deep breath. "Then this won't make you any happier. Sasuke-kun, I really need to tell you right now…before it's too late and I regret it for the rest of my living moments." This sounded serious. He would stay.

She paused again. "Aishiteru."

The hot room was silent again. Sasuke was silent along with it, staring down at her earnest face. That was all, then? Sakura just wanted to tell him that? He turned to leave. "Wait," she cried out softly. He turned around.

"I really meant that, Sasuke-kun. It's not just a childhood crush anymore, and I need you to know that," she said, desperation tingeing her tone.

He turned to go again, his chest oddly tight. "I know."

**A/N: A bit more of a sad-ish chapter.**


	10. Before

**A/N: It will get fluffier soon! I have a one-track mind, so it's hard for me to do multiple pairings at once. Hang in there. Just keep in mind that stuff IS happening behind the scenes of the story to the other less-mentioned characters, and bear with me. Also, I'm a basher of character death, unless it's really well written, (and I can't write character death well AT ALL), so it probably won't happen.**

-

**Traveling Moon,**

**Humming Phase:**

**Before**

-

_Nothing is too good to be true._

-

Tenten was going to have a seizure.

She had been yelling at Neji at the top of her lungs for the past hour like a rabid dog, but she might as well have been ranting at a stone statue. At least a statue might have given more of a response: Neji just sat there and took her verbal abuse like it didn't exist.

If Neji was yelling back, it would have been much better than this. He was reducing her to a piece of worthless dirt, and it was making her shrink. Tenten did not _want_ to shrink. Shrinking was for cowards, and she was anything but. Dealing with Neji was supposed to be her area of expertise. She was going to _work _and _work_ that expertise until it paid off.

_Which could take a few centuries_, she reasoned bitterly, glaring at Neji's immobile figure.

"It is a beautiful sunset," he said flatly.

"HYUUGA NEJI, I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT SUNSETS!" she roared. "I AM TALKING ABOUT THE SUICIDAL THINGS THAT YOU AND THE UCHIHA ARE ABOUT TO DO AND HOW I AM TOTALLY _NOT ALRIGHT_ WITH IT! ARE YOU LISTENING TO A WORD THAT I'M SAYING! NEJI!"

She felt a gush of relief when he turned to face her, though his face was still like it had been carved from a chip of icy granite.

"I can hear you perfectly well," he finally said.

Tenten's neck, face, and forehead flushed bright red. "Darn well, you better hear me," she snapped at him. "Boys don't have a bit of sense in their heads, and I've been given the most unpleasant chore of putting some into your skull."

This time, his pale eyes flashed. "Tenten, you do not know the definition of maturity."

"Actually, I do," she snapped back at him, "And I demonstrate it much better than you. You're not taking suggestions from anybody, and we're supposed to work together, remember?"

"You believe that you could do better? Your self control is not nearly complete." He turned away again. "This truly is a wonderful sunset. You should learn to appreciate the works of nature and Fate more, Tenten. Then you will be truly great."

"No self control? Neji, you're the definition of self control, and I learned from you," she blustered, accidentally sending spittle flying through the air. He raised an eyebrow at her, sensing that his teachings were obsolete, and made a small motion at her head. Tenten's hands flew to her hair, and to her dismay, two furry brown ears had poked out in between her buns.

She paused. "Alright, so it could use some work. I don't see what that has to do with you going to kill yourself."

Neji was looking openly angry now. "Tenten, I thought you trusted my judgment."

She was stricken. "Neji-kun, I do, it's jus-"

"And I thought that you trusted _me_."

"You know that I do, but this is dif-"

"I'm not that weak," he said and turned back around, closing off the discussion. Tenten shrank slightly. Being weak didn't have much to do with the argument, and both of them knew it. Tenten was worried like a doting mother, and Neji was the rebellious son. However, neither had the willpower to admit it.

"I never took you to be suicidal," she snapped, and stalked out the door to escape the tension.

-

Tenten sat, pigging out on Maraschino cherry ice cream in a small ceramic bowl and fuming at the world in her head, cross-legged at a small wooden table on the collapsing back patio. The sun had almost completely set by then, and the stars were flickering. She was highly suspicious that they were actually helicopters.

The screen door behind her slid slowly open. She was about to curse at whoever it was, but it turned out just to be an innocent 6-year-old boy, looking frightened at her devilish facial expression. He scooted sideways off of the patio and raced to join another of his friends, glancing at her behind their hands and whispering.

She angrily clawed the last bit of pink ice cream that was sticking resolutely to the bottom of the bowl and licked it off of the silver spoon. She left the dishes out for somebody else to find as a surprise and went back inside, feeling miserable.

Matsuri came around the corner and anxiously spared her a glance before pulling out a container of mint chocolate chip from the freezer. "Er, do you mind?" she asked timidly, pulling out a chair at the indoor table. Tenten shook her head. As if her opinion mattered.

"A-Anything wrong?" Matsuri asked by way of trying to make the icy silence go away. Tenten jerkily shook her head, and discovered that her brown hair was down all the way for once, as the ears had taken away the buns.

"Alright then," Matsuri shrank and went to her ice cream. Her eyes were wide, scared, and those of an innocent girl. Tenten felt a sudden surge of shame for taking out her bad mood on her. She was so unsuspecting.

These charitable thoughts were destroyed when the sound of heavy footsteps stopped around the corner, and she looked up to the cold demeanor of Subaku no Gaara, having obviously followed his student down. She scooted out of her chair so fast that she nearly lost her footing. "I don't suppose you'd care for ice cream," she waved her arm sarcastically in Matsuri's direction. Gaara remained immobile.

Tenten's anger flared. This wolf had tried to _eat_ Hinata, for Heaven's sake!

"Stop looking at me," she commanded in a deadly voice, taking a step forward. This time, Gaara's red eyebrows rose, prominent against his pale features, as if daring her to make him. She was _that close_ to throttling his pretty little neck when a voice said, "That will be all, thank you."

She started as Neji moved to stand in front of her. "Come on, Tenten."

It was not an order, but she felt inclined to obey. She followed meekly, sparing a hairy eyeball for Gaara as he moved to sit next to Matsuri.

"I thought you were mad at me," she finally said as Neji sat down quietly on the same steps that they had sat on weeks ago. Neji looked up at her, his loose ponytail swinging slightly, and looked back down. The ponytail slipped and fell onto the steps. The sleek tips of his hair fell forward along his well-structured face and brushed his elbows.

He made a movement to reach for the band, but Tenten got there first. "I'll do it," she said softly, her hands slowly binding his hair back into place. Neji's back was stiff. It was too much like their childhood: the hours they spent up in trees when Tenten was apologizing. She'd often bound his hair before. He had been too remote to do the same for her, which seemed oddly backward, since she was the girl.

"There," she said, sitting down.

Neji grunted. "Hn."

"You didn't need to take me away. I was fine on my own," she said, a line of defiance in her tone and totally ruining the mushy apology. "Gaara's getting on my nerves. He threatened Hinata."

Neji glanced at her. "You forget that Hinata is my cousin."

"Oh. Right," she said softly. "Well, thanks for standing up for me anyways, Neji-kun. I'm sorry about…before." Neji grunted again in acknowledgement, and they sat in an awkward but comfortable silence. Neither made a move to break it.

"I will come back," Neji finally said, getting up. "My Pack is waiting for me."

Tenten felt a plummet of slight disappointment in her stomach. Why was it there? Was it because he had not said anything about coming back to her? Her alone? Yet, why should he?

"We'll be waiting for you," she said brightly instead, putting on a smile. He paused.

"I'll think of you," he said formally. It was only meant as a polite statement, but it sent tremors of pleasure down her spine anyways. Her cheeks glowed. She struggled to come up with something wildly witty to say back to him.

What came out was, "Same here".

-

"That's great! Sugoi, Hinata-chan!"

An over-enthusiastic Naruto smiled and clapped, dancing around. Hinata had just managed to grow her nails and shrink them back in. He wasn't exactly supposed to teach her that yet, but it wouldn't hurt…right? Now, ears popped out on her head in mass embarrassment at the praise.

Naruto sat back down and smiled. _Naruto-kun…_

His cerulean eyes blinked widely at her, overfilling with happiness. "Isn't this great? We can be best friends now without ever worrying about me hurting you! Besides, if we hang out a lot, maybe Sakura-chan will notice me more too as a bonus," he said cheerfully.

Hinata felt a rush of disappointment. Was that why he was hanging out with her? To get close to Sakura, and not just for her?

Naruto seemed to have realized his offense for once. His eyes widened and quickly he hugged Hinata. "I really like you too, Hinata-chan, you're one of my best friends! I want to hang out with you _and_ Sakura-chan is all."

Hinata flushed to the ears, bright crimson, and Naruto released her, this time oblivious.

Naruto winced and stood up, picking up a book that he had been sitting on. Hinata's eyes widened, panicking, as Naruto opened it. "Hinata-chan, did you write these?" he asked quietly, sitting down again.

Hinata was mortified.

"These are so beautiful. They'll be even better once you sing them…why don't you show them to Ino and we can play them in the band?" asked Naruto seriously. "You never show off your talents."

"I d-don't have any," she said quietly, the red receding.

Naruto looked shocked. "You can't really believe that!" he said, sounding indignant. Hinata nodded slightly. He hugged her again, gently this time, cradling her head. Red flushed up her neck and whiskers sprouted on her face.

"Hinata-chan, you have a lot of talents. Don't stop trying. Ever," said Naruto softly with the voice of somebody who knew what they were talking about.

"Naruto-kun, why are y-you hugging m-me?"

"You smell nice. Like ramen."

Hinata flushed more. Coming from Naruto, that was probably as close to a "thoughtful compliment" as you got. Despite herself, a slight giggle escaped her lips, and Naruto chuckled.

They laughed for a long time.

-

"So…what's this guy about?"

Sakura curiously poked her head around a corner as Tenten smirked. "Trust me, you have no idea."

The pink-haired wolf had long wished to meet Tenten's training partner, the rumored eccentric Rock Lee. She had at last gotten her rhetorical wish at an unexpected and random time. Still, she was curious as to see if the rumors were true.

"Hmm…he should be around back. We're supposed to train today," Tenten explained, sliding open the back screen door. Sakura smiled at her friend. She was in a good mood: Ino had canceled band rehearsal, something everybody in the house had come to dread with a fervor.

"Where is he?" asked a ticked Tenten. "He was supposed to be here…"

"TENTEN-SAN!"

"AARGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

The bowl cut of truth emerged from the large tree above their head. He landed on Tenten's shoulders and they collapsed on the ground. Sakura's eyes bugged. "Tenten-chan! Daijoubu?"

Lee turned and saw Sakura.

Do you believe in love at first sight?

"Oh, flower of youth! Who are you, and what have I done to be granted this honor of meeting you?" he asked, reaching for her hand to kiss. Sakura immediately drew it away. "Er, how are you?"

Oh, God.

**A/N: Please review!**


	11. Fear

**A/N: Hm, I just realized that I've been forgetting to put a disclaimer. Here it is: I do not own the Naruto comics or anime show, (written by Masashi Kinimoto), but I do happen to own this plotline and the genetics of the werewolf lore. Here's some of pretty much most of the pairings…ShikaInoTema…**

-

**Traveling Moon,**

**Death Phase:**

**Fear**

-

_May we meet thee by angels To welcome eternity's dawn…_

_-Tombstone inscription_

-

Adrenaline, like water, seems to come in all forms.

The ball of energy, dread, and excitement in the pit of Sakura's stomach felt quite solid, thank you very much. It had wondrously prevented her from downing anything other than water for the past day. She knew it wasn't good for her. Her body was protesting.

On another thought, the pure exhilaration rushing through her veins and pumping through her blood moved so subtlety and freely that it could not be anything but liquid: it changed shape quickly, flowed smoothly, supercharging every atom in her body.

Last, the liquid seemed to evaporate and rise into her nostrils and fill up her throat, until it seemed like she was _breathing_ a chemical that induced sugar-high. The air came in bitingly cold, and it also conveniently stopped her regular breathing so that she hiccupped. Lovely.

On the outside, Sakura's face had drained of all blood except for the high color in both of her cheekbones, her lovely green eyes full and wild. Her hair was frizzing from the all the times she had run her fingers through it.

_Tomorrow was the trials._

-

Every woven fiber of the reed seemed to bite mockingly, derisively, into Tenten's bottom lip. Her buckteeth bit defiantly against the black plastic mouthpiece. Could you play a tenor without your buckteeth, she wondered?

Or perhaps you would have to purchase dentures? Shudder. _Ew._

She dismounted the instrument and lay back against the tree, who's every ridge on the age-old bark also seemed to torment her back, clashing against every ridge of her vertebrae. Another question: could you play tenor with a crooked backbone? Probably.

She resolutely kept thinking the small questions, because the big ones were too confusing. She was too confusing.

Or, in short, you could say that Tenten was in pieces, in a mess…over Hyuuga Neji and the trials that Fate might tip in either side's favor.

And she had no idea how to clean herself up.

-

Hinata quietly lay on her stomach, sketching lightly in her notebook, and her voice, shaking, humming a few notes as she multitasked and jotted down a few words for a new song that she was writing. The five-bar rows for the notes were crooked. Or was it just the fullness of the tears in her eyes waving the stems of the half-notes?

She realized that her last measure was a beat off of the four-four timing, before the tumult of salty liquid tumbled out of her eyes and exploded down her cheeks.

The paper turned dark and sank in where the droplets hit it, so that the faceless head of the woman mannequin she was drawing was distorted and out of shape. A faceless fear, she realized, she had been drawing.

_Unknown. Illusion. Fantasy,_ read the notes on the music pad. She threw it aside, surprised at her own uncontrollable emotions.

She brushed aside the other book and curled into a ball of agony on the bed, her entire frail frame racked with sobs, and the tears soaking into the bedspread and making the sheets stick uncomfortably to her face. She didn't care.

For once, there was something bigger than the tiny frames of her life for her to worry about. There was something bigger than herself, and it involved mischievous cerulean blue eyes.

-

Pace. Pace. Pace.

Click.

Breath.

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

Hyperventilate.

Ino roared at herself and hit the keyboard in the practice room so hard that her hands bounced back with the painful sting and the black bulk tottered. She caught it before it fell and flicked the switch to turn it off.

Her breath came in short, angry gasps. She felt like if she kept this up any more, she would be listening to one of those "breath in, breath out" tapes just to keep her alive. Or maybe she'd get to stick tubes up her nose at the hospital.

The blonde wolf sighed and sat down cross-legged, sitting in the lotus position and attempting to calm herself. Aaah. Wasn't that just slightly better, letting go of every single one of her little troubles like a colorful balloon, watching them float over the peaceful horizon?

"INO-SANNN!!"

"LEE I'M GOING TO STRANGLE YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!!!"

-

"Shika-kun, what are you doing?"

Ino tentatively approached her friend at the table and pulled out a rickety old chair next to him. Shikamaru's usually neat hair was still pulled back into its usual messy ponytail, but his face was pale and had huge bags under the eyes.

"God, are you alright?" she chided, reaching out a hand to cup his cheek. He swatted her away. It was only then she noticed the complicated blueprints on the table in front of him. She looked at him questioningly.

"I've been trying to devise a plan so that we have a minimal probability of losing or death," he explained, grinding his teeth. "So far, it's proving rather difficult, but I think I'll have it soon. Hopefully on time."

"You're not fighting, are you?" she asked, feeling something clench in the pit of her stomach.

"I'm Neji's backup."

Without thinking, Ino threw her arms around her friend tightly. Shikamaru let out a choking sound. "Ino!" he said, sounding embarrassed. She pressed her nose into his shoulder, realizing that he smelled wonderful.

"Shika, don't go," she muttered, sounding like she was pouting.

"Aiya, troublesome women," he sighed, and pushed her off. "I'm too much of a coward to do anything stupidly noble and get myself killed, Ino. You don't have to be so worrisome like an old hen."

She glared at him playfully. "Who's the old hen?"

"Ino, if you try to tickle me-"

"Oh, I will."

The genius without a second thought bolted for his life. He sprinted around the corner of the stairs and slid to a halt. Temari was leaning against the wall, her hair in the perfect quad-pigtails and with her ankles crossed. "Yo," she said casually, raising her eyebrows at Ino.

Shikamaru automatically flushed red. "Oh, er, h-hi."

Ino gaped at him. She'd never heard Shikamaru stutter before, except when he was scared. Somehow, she didn't get the vibe that that was the case in this odd scenario.

"Hi. I don't believe we've been properly introduced," she said instead, holding out a game hand to Temari. She shook it and grasped harder than necessary. Ino would have winced, but she held back. She would show no weakness in front of this wolf, not if her thumbs were in the thumbscrews.

"Temari. Can't say it's nice to meet you," she said coldly.

Ino bared her fangs, hoping that they looked sharp. "Same."

Shikamaru looked back and forth quickly between his best friend and his love interest. "Uh, nice seeing you, Temari. Ino, c'mon, let's go. I still have to work on those plans." Temari looked slightly disgruntled, but just shrugged out of her leaning position and stood up, slinking slowly past Shikamaru. She leaned in close and breathed something into his ear, which made his face flush, and was off, smirking at Ino.

Ino fumed silently, wishing her to drop dead RIGHT NOW and do it painfully.

-

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun, wait up!"

Normally, Sasuke's wide strides would have been hard for Sakura to catch up with, but today the three-form adrenaline gave her an extra boost. Her legs sped in front of each other so fast that she tripped and sprawled on her face. Her face hot with embarrassment, she pushed herself up to meet Sasuke's amused expression.

"Hurt?"

"I-Iie, I'm alright."

Silence. Sasuke made a small twitch with his lip, indicating that she should say whatever she had wanted to say. Sakura shook the vibrant pink hair out of her face and tucked a strand behind her ear, twisting her feet and fiddling with her fingers behind her back.

"What do you want?" he said, sounding slightly irritated after the pause stretched for a few more seconds. Sakura looked up at him.

"Nothing, really, I guess…I just wanted to talk with you," she said lamely, feeling incurably foolish and an utter bumbling idiot. Sasuke, however, just shrugged it off and pulled out a chair to sit in, as if telling her to just talk and he would at least grant the courtesy of pretending to listen and understand her odd ways.

She clasped her hands on the table, looking down. "I…I'm scared for you, Sasuke-kun," she said softly, fighting to keep her voice from breaking.

Sasuke didn't say anything. She looked up to see the mask in perfect placement, but his eyes betrayed a flicker.

"Did you mean what you said…earlier?" he asked softly. They both knew what he meant. She nodded earnestly, even as the color rose high into her cheekbones. She might as well have been drunk.

"You know that it means nothing to me?" he added, a note of steel in his voice. Sakura nodded a small nod of acknowledgement. She knew too well how little those words meant to Uchiha Sasuke.

"I know, but you can't make me stop caring about you, Sasuke-kun. That's something that will never go away," she said resolutely. Her pink hair fell into her face, and she added something. "I will kill myself if you die."

Well, you can't really stay silent to something like that. "Hn," said Sasuke. "That is something foolish and completely unnecessary."

"Not to me," she said angrily.

"Unlike you, suicide does seem like an unreasonably stupid thing to do," he said pleasantly. "I'd prefer if you didn't, actually. It would kill your friends, and we don't want that."

She snorted. "WE? Soon there won't _be_ a 'we', Sasuke-kun! That's what I'm trying to say!"

Sasuke's eyes were hidden from her by the thick ebony bangs falling into his face. He seemed to be thinking. Well, she hoped he was considering what she was trying to get across. Things seemed to take a long time getting through to Sasuke recently.

"Aishiteru," she whispered weakly again, feeling embarrassed and foolish. It was her last card, but it wasn't a trump. She had no idea what his reaction would be.

He brushed it away. It hurt just that much. "Merely a child's affection," he said briefly.

"It's not," she said, her voice soft but with a hard tint in it. "I am determined to love you, Sasuke-kun. No matter how long you stay in denial that I will not stop caring about you." Sasuke looked at her, trying to forge his expression into one of amusement at her antics. He could not. Even he wasn't cruel. Girls were scary once they got their feelings hurt.

Instead, some mad part of his inner self took over for a second, and he reached out his ice-cold palm and pushed back a stray strand of pink hair from her face. Her face pulsed and glowed red under his touch. "Sakura, you're like a little sister to me," he said flatly. "I could never love you: it is frustrating for you to love me. I…I don't deserve you anyways."

Her face fell slightly, but her eyes closed as his hand came back to her face, and stroked down gently against her jawbone. His mind flashed back to this face, years ago, tinted with baby fat and an innocent smile. The smile was still there, though now it was sad. He wanted it to be happy again. He was supposed to be acting the part of big brother, anyways.

Awkwardly, he set his hand back down, the fingers trailing against the side of her neck once he set them back on the table. "Gomen." He stood up so abruptly that the chair squeaked and stalked away.

Sakura opened her eyes and touched her neck, smiling to herself.

-

Ino was in a bad, bad stint.

Normally, a good dose of some vampire romance novels, stashed away in a large stack and gathering dust under her and Sakura's bunk, would have served wonders. It nearly always solved all of her temper tantrums. Not today. This felt like it was roaring and feeling her instead of her feeling angry. The anger was about to burst and she was too small to contain it.

Was it all anger, really though, this powerful? Was there jealousy and envy and maybe even hurt in there as well? _Nah._

The sun was setting, and she had bigger problems to worry about.

One of them walked through the door. Hyuuga Neji was a mess. His hair was frizzing and his ponytail was coming undone again. His face was drained of all blood and the circles under his eyes were more prominent than ever. In that condition, he would get himself killed from exhaustion just before the fighting began.

"Neji, you're worrying us all sick," she scolded him, getting up and warming up a facecloth. Neji grunted in acknowledgement. She made a face and handed him the cloth. "And you're also going to give Tenten a heart attack. You can't honestly tell me that you don't know she's concerned?"

His face convulsed for a millisecond, (probably remembering some fight with Tenten, assumed Ino), and fell back into the mask. "Hn."

She sighed and went back to her own bed.

-

"Gaara-sensei…" Matsuri whispered softly, unable to sleep.

There was a quiet growl, and then a muffled scream. Something had come up behind the girl, and ice cold hands were pinned tightly against her mouth. The person who was holding her suddenly relaxed. Matsuri, wild-eyed with panic, whirled around and felt a rushing wave of relief at the face that glared at her disapprovingly out of the dark.

Subaku no Gaara's sea-green eyes were surprised and slightly angry. "Matsuri."

"G-Gomen-nasai, Gaara-sensei!" she murmured shamefully. He ground his teeth at her in irritation. She realized that he was shirtless. Red immediately tinted her cheeks.

"You could have been a member of the other Pack, trying to sabotage us."

"H-Hai. Gomen, gomen."

"What do you want?"

"I couldn't sleep. I was worried about you," she admitted, looking way up into his face. He paused, made a tiny sound deep in his chest that he had heard her, and turned to look out the window.

"Do you see the stars out there?" She nodded her head yes.

"They will watch over me tomorrow, and you tonight. Whenever you have need, pray to the stars. They…helped me with this new life," he said quietly, putting a hand on her small shoulder. She hugged him tightly around the waist, (he wasn't very huggable, being full of muscle), and buried her face into his chest.

His arms reeled back to catch his balance and he stumbled backward. "Matsuri!" he hissed, now really angry.

He expected her to let go immediately at the sound of his fury. She didn't. Instead, she clung tighter. He realized she was sobbing. He stopped scolding her, and instead awkwardly put his bare arms around her torso, and rested his head into her hair.

No words were said. It wasn't meant to be that way.

**A/N: A little longer than usual. Next chapter is THE TRIALS! Dun dun dun.**


	12. Trials

**A/N: Me again. Plenty of drama, werewolf action, and sap-cheese-fluff-mush double-whammie. In English, that means: try and keep up. I dare you.**

-

**Traveling Moon,**

**Death Phase:**

**Trials and Ordeals**

-

_Thou who sees happiness as it flies _

_Lives in eternity's sunrise_

-

5:47 AM

Second day of Death Phase

The Orphanage

Sakura jolted awake from the dizzying world of dreams so abruptly that she hit her head on the slats of wood above her head._ Ow._ The pain seemed insignificant, however, as she furrowed her brow. She was forgetting something. Something major important.

"Oh, God," she muttered as she sprang out of bed. She yanked aside the curtains. All beds were vacated, even Gaara's. She stole a quick glance back to her side. Temari was gone, but Matsuri and the other girls were still sleeping soundly. She didn't have the heart to wake them, but knew that Tenten and Ino would skin her alive and scalp her corpse if she didn't alert them.

Ino nearly throttled her subconsciously from tension when Sakura tentatively poked her in the rib. Tenten looked like a ghost. Or a zombie. Hinata, poor Hinata's, eyes were wide with fear, and her lower lip trembled. Tenten patted her back. It was going to be OK.

-

6:01 AM

Field of Trials

Neji gazed coldly up at the stormy-gray sky. Perfect conditions. With any luck, there would be thunder and any growling or howling would be covered by nature's own noise. The surrounding suburbia would live on with their monotonous lives, none the wiser. Perfect. Then why did he feel so uneasy?

Shikamaru, a blade of grass bit jauntily between his teeth, had his backbone against a tree and his head tilted up also. His knees were banging together, even though he was doing his best to play it cool. He hadn't devised a strategy in time, as the enemy was so unpredictable. He was in panic mode.

The last Uchiha knelt in the tall, unshaven green grass, his pale hands balled into fists around the protesting blades. His head was bent, his face pale. His eyes glinted dangerously scarlet red, daring the world to bother him then at that crucial moment.

Naruto was normal. Naruto was always happy. He was also cheerfully screaming about kicking butt.

Subaku no Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou stood two meters apart from each other at the other end of the field.

Neji, Sasuke, and Shikamaru continued to gaze with impending doom at the horizon line, waiting for the sun to fully rise into the sky. Then, the fighting would begin, and the Pack as they knew it would collapse.

-

6:15 AM

Surrounding Forest

The girls were shifted: Hinata, a bullet of glistening silver; Sakura, a blaze of cherry red; Ino, a drip of molten gold; and Tenten, a whirlwind of mouse brown. They had left Matsuri to her dreaming. They had shown a little mercy to the young wolf.

To themselves, they showed none. They pushed their lanky legs to the full, neck-breaking speed that a werewolf body could contain, feeling the wind yank at their fur and friction fighting against them. Once in a while, they let loose a chorus of frustrated growling and howls.

There was no time.

-

6:17 AM

Matsuri

The brown-haired girl woke slowly, then bolted upright, her eyes wide with worry as she scanned the empty, tousled beds. Everybody had left without her. She had proved herself unworthy. Tears, against her will, filled her eyes.

The salty water dripped down her face and into her lap. She let it run. Her throat had a large lump in it, and she was sure that she was going to choke on her own sorrow. What a funny way to die, she thought ironically. I'm a werewolf, and I'm going to die choking on tears.

_Gaara-sensei._

-

6:24 AM

The Packs

"It has risen," said Neji in a flat, the-doom-has-come voice. He turned to face his Pack and the opposing weres, his sandals making a swishing sound on the grass. It was a boom in the unearthly silence. He had no needed to announce it. All of the bodies were stiff and tightly sprung; the adrenaline leaking into the air like a gas tank leaking gasoline.

The sun was indeed now fully ablaze in the sky, the orange-yellow light spilling across the gray sky. Clouds quickly moved to cover it. The air was frigid and moisturized a gloomy sort of day. A dying, half-hearted sort of day.

Just as Neji was about to put a foot forward, four very panicked wolves burst out of the trees. They morphed back into human form as they ran, stumbling from trying to stop the amazing speed they were going at so quickly. Sakura collapsed into the grass, rolled over a few times, and came to rest on her stomach next to the still kneeling Sasuke.

"Please," she whispered, trying to look into his eyes. They weren't visible beneath his hair. "Please, can't you just forfeit for me? There will be other fights," she pleaded desperately. Sasuke's head jerked up, his eyes blood red.

"Don't talk to me," he snarled, and shoved her by the shoulder away. She landed back among the grasses, and didn't bother to get back up.

Hinata was nearly on the verge of tears, also, as Naruto bravely reassured her. (Well, maybe it was just stupidity, but Naruto was awfully brave). "Aw, they won't land a scratch on me, Hinata-chan. Besides, I only get to go in if Sasuke-teme and Neji…well…anyway, I'll be fine."

Hinata didn't look convinced. Tenten watched Neji's back as it got further away from her, feeling weak and hating it. She wanted to yell, scream, rant, and probably beat him with a thorny stick. It didn't make her feel better.

Ino was in the same predicament. Shikamaru was looking at Temari with a pained look in his eyes, and Temari looked back at him, her eyes full of tears before she brushed them away so quickly Ino wasn't sure if they had been there or not. She felt a jolt of pain in her chest. Being the best-friend third-wheel was seriously as deep into the pits as you got.

Neji paused and turned to look at his Pack. His eyes crinkled slightly, as if he were smiling without the upturned lips. Then he progressed forward. Sasuke stood and took a step forward too. Then he hesitated, and looked down into Sakura's glazed eyes. "Sakura…watch my back," he told her.

She got up slowly, as if remembering how to use her body, and nodded, smiling through her tear-stained lips. With a small moan, she fell forward into the lithe shape of a werewolf. Her fur was windblown still, and mixed into intricate patterns. Sasuke fell forward into wolf form.

It was hard, feeling all of her rushing affection toward him. Anybody would feel guilty if they had said the things Uchiha Sasuke had said to her. But Sasuke was good at hiding emotions, even to himself. His thoughts or body language didn't betray anything.

_I will live._ He vowed to her through his mind. The wolf turned to face him, Sakura's emerald eyes showing through its fur. She padded over and licked down his ruff slowly, and backed away. He turned to look at her. _A-Arigato._

The wolves on either side stepped forward to meet their fate.

-

6:30 AM  
The Battle Engages

Subaku no Gaara's claws were enlarged twice as large as normal, even for a werewolf, so that they looked like daggers or talons or miniature machetes, (haha). Neji dodged to the left as he attempted to sink those claws into his haunches, and escaped by a fraction of an inch.

Instead, the Pack Alpha rounded on him and clawed viciously down his back. Gaara growled irritably and gave Neji a deep slash down the side of the face. Dripping blood and now attacking with a fury, Neji rammed into his opponent, successfully making him stumble, and then flipped him over.

However, before he had a go at his belly, Gaara wriggled out, auburn fur blowing in the wind. He lunged with a snarl and landed on Neji's back. The two were a blur of teeth, claws, and fur as they thrashed and clawed to the ground.

Sasuke was matched against Temari.

She she-wolf and him carefully circled each other, their paws thumping methodically against the ground. He felt the slight tremors she was causing. She was light. Made for quick movement, not full-out brawling.

Suddenly, she was gone. Vanished. He let out a noise of frustration, and whirled to meet her attack from behind head on. He was surprised to find his paws hit ground instead of fur. Gone again.

Uchiha Sasuke's style wasn't stealth. This would be an odd match.

Suddenly, he felt a crashing weight as she howled with triumph and pinned herself to his back from above. He yowled and thrashed, trying to get her off, but he couldn't dislodge the needle-sharp claws and her teeth, sunk into the side of his neck.

She tore, and he whimpered in pain, blood dripping down his sides. Then, he smiled to himself, and wickedly suddenly rolled over. She made a noise of surprise as she was suddenly pinned under him. She let go. He flipped over and pinned her down with a paw on the stomach. Temari growled at him, her paws flailing.

He dug into her stomach and she howled with pain. He drew blood several times before she finally escaped, panting hard and weakened considerably.

Temari vanished again, and came at him from the side, staying low and going underneath his soft underbelly. He twisted, and she missed, looking confused. He took the chance to pounce from behind and roll her over again, and created a deep, diagonal gash from her chest fur to the right side of her belly.

She made a small whimpering sound deep in her throat, flailing slightly as he drew blood again, this time in the other direction so that there was an huge, ugly, bleeding X wound on her. Then she fell unconscious.

Sasuke surrendered to his human form, his eyes still red from the blood pouring out of Temari, and smirked. "Hn. Easy."

Neji had emerged from the brawl, Gaara in a low-to-the-ground position with paws near Neji's front ones. Neji took a step back as the other wolf's muscles bunched.

Gaara missed, but his eyes suddenly landed on Sakura, who in her frantic worry over Sasuke, had accidentally morphed back to human form. Neji's eyes widened as he sensed what his opponent was going to do about this new development.

Subaku no Gaara lunged at the girl, his huge form swooping under her and hauling his prize up. He howled in victory at the stunned Alpha and Beta. _Come and get me if you can._

Sasuke roared in fury and pelted full speed after the potential kidnapper.

-

7:18 AM  
Sakura and Gaara

The huge wolf dumped his victim into a pile of garbage bags in an alleyway just outside of the orphanage, panting as he stopped. Sakura's eyes were wide with fear. She was no match for this Alpha, not to the maniac glint in his eye.

He growled as she attempted to prop herself up.

Then he circled her slowly, and she realized he was deciding on a point to attack her from. If he couldn't win against her Pack, then this was his revenge. Her body stiffened. She had to transform, right now. Then at least she might have a chance. She couldn't. Fear was paralyzing her limbs.

The other wolf had the equivalent of a human sneer pasted across his face. He knew he had won, and that he had reason to be proud of it. His teeth bared, and his muscles condensed. He leapt.

Sakura had squeezed her eyes shut, preparing to feel the painful intrusion of razor sharp canines digging into her neck. Instead, there was a colossal roaring sound. _Is this dying?_

It wasn't.

She opened her eyes, and then they widened. A huge black wolf was now sparring with the red one, soon creating a large gash across its neck. Gaara lay still on the concrete. Sasuke morphed back into human form staggeringly fast, and stumbled. When he turned to stare at Sakura, his eyes were blood red. Thirsty red.

He took a small step toward her. Her breathing quickened. This wasn't Sasuke. This was the terrifying beast that lurked within his soul, ready for an opportunity to surface from its usual human shell covering. She found herself scrabbling backward against the trash. "Sasuke-kun," she breathed faintly, knowing it was pointless.

Sasuke's body went through a fierce spasm, his outline blurring slightly as he wavered between wolf and boy.

And then Gaara was up again, and pounced from behind, trying to get to Sakura. Sasuke was nearer and got there first. He pushed Gaara out of the way, and landed on top of her with an impact that knocked the air out of her lungs. They rolled over and over, out of the heap, and landed with Sakura lying on her back, and Sasuke above her, supporting all of his weight on his outstretched arms. His eyes flickered between black and red, flaming into a confusing gothic-themed pattern.

"Sakura. Run," he croaked. Tears from fright and shock leaked out of the corners of her eyes. She shook her head violently, trying to orient herself. Number one on her checklist? She wasn't dead. Great. Now what?

Sasuke roared with frustration and rolled off of her. "Sakura, if you're not going to get the _hell_ out of here, I'm going to rip out your throat!"

He pushed off of the ground and squatted there, watching the once again fallen form of Gaara. Then he turned and looked back at Sakura, who's smell still radiated off of her skin. Her frightened expression was killing him slowly. It was annoying as it was a reminder of the fact that he would _eagerly_ snap her neck if he lost the unpredictable control he was trying to regain right then.

It wasn't fair. This girl made him violent and unsure of himself. He found himself pouting like a child and scared to death, something Uchiha Sasuke was not about to allow for himself. Not only did she bring out the furious raving wolf inside him, her frightened features caused him more trouble than was accounted for.

In short, life stunk with Sakura in the same Pack as him.

After a moment's more contemplation, he reached out a hand. She stared dumbly at it, as if he had sprouted tentacles. He growled, feeling annoyed and on edge, and she hurriedly took it. He slowly lifted her up, bearing most of her weight and breathing heavily. She wobbled slightly, but she could stand.

He glanced back at Gaara. Still out cold. He decided to leave him there. Sasuke was liking Gaara less and less. Though the idea repulsed him, the only person who was going to get Sakura's flesh was him, and he was going to delay the day that he finally snapped as long as possible. He hoped, rather, that it would be later than sooner.

They progressed out of the alley.

-

"My _God_, why is it that near-death situations happen about 700 more to werewolves than normal society?" Tenten raved, as Sasuke entered their dormitory fifteen minutes later with a pale Sakura, bruises all over both of them.

Hinata's eyes were wider than they had been that morning. Neji was there too, a long but shallow scratch stretching from his right cheekbone and across his nose to his left earlobe.

The other Pack was nowhere to be seen.

"That certainly went according to plans, didn't it?" said Shikamaru ironically, nevertheless looking relaxed and like his usual reassured self again. "What'd you do, try and commit suicide, Sakura? Women are so troublesome."

Ino elbowed him harder than necessary. "Urusai, you jerk."

Shikamaru shrugged, disgruntled and trying to rub his bruised ribs without looking like he had suffered any pain. Worse things had happened, and friends killing themselves were solid on his bottom ten list.

"Where's Gaara?" asked Ino, her blue eyes serious. They had all seen the two going off, except perhaps Shikamaru. Then again, maybe he had been joking about suicide: it was a little hard to tell with the genius.

Sasuke jerked his head toward the alley under the side window, and dumped Sakura unceremoniously on her bed. No sooner had her body hit the bed then he had disappeared back out of the door, swearing profusely under his breath.

Tenten chuckled. "Wow, Sakura. You must have done something really rash to smell so good as to have actually made THE Sasuke leave the room. What'd you do, sprinkle pepper on yourself?"

Well, nobody in the room was in the room for black humor except the Weapons Mistress, so nobody laughed besides her.

Sakura lay still on the bed and the sun made its way towards the center of the sky as Tenten tended to Neji's wounds.

The preliminaries had been truly unusual. As Matsuri was too young to make the journey to the finals, and Temari and Gaara had both been defeated in a way, they would continue as if the fight had never happened according to werewolf law.

Sakura smiled bitterly to the bunk slats. All this for nothing.

Everything for nothing. What a fair trade.

**A/N: That might have been a bit confusing. Ask questions in reviews and I will answer if you want.**


	13. Tidings

**A/N: OK, so there wasn't as much sap as I had originally meant to put in. I decided that it was highly unrealistic that people would just suddenly realize they were madly in love with somebody they had been with for several years. (Heh, and yes, they will be madly in love eventually. Promise.)**

-

**Traveling Moon,**

**Death Phase:**

**Tidings**

-

_He who tries to catch two rabbits,_

_Loses both._

-

"I can't believe you did that!"

Sakura was angry, once she was out of the bitter, shocked state. Very angry.

"You could have been _killed._ Do you know how Neji's honor has been wounded? He's probably going to go into depression. Right here, and right now. Do you know what kind of treatment a depressed _werewolf_ would need? Stop looking like a wax dummy, Sasuke."

She'd dropped the suffix. That meant bad news.

Sasuke smirked, perched on the edge of her bunk bed while she paced the length of the room. It was a nice day, so everybody else was outside. He found it rather amusing that she was angry at him for saving her life. He had regained the mask-like control that he usually kept, so even the enticing scent rising in plumes from her skin was alright today. He could afford to be amused.

"I could have been killed? I was under the impression that you were about to be ripped to shreds."

She glared at him, her face flushed and green eyes seriously ticked. "I thought that we'd been through this before. My life isn't all that important. If you can call it a life. Do werewolves live?" She shook her head as if to clear it. "If I could throttle you without you throttling me first right now, I would do it."

Now, Uchiha Sasuke was not stupid. After living with Haruno Sakura for the measure of years that they had been in the same Pack, since that day that he had turned her to the dark side, (wow, did that come straight out of Star Wars or what?), he was rather familiar with her patterns. Once on a rave, she would not STOP raving until the world ended or some similar catastrophe befell them.

He had a theory that he knew how to quell her anger, but Naruto would never let him hear the end of it if he put this theory into use. However, he was getting awfully tired of being lectured about how he should just let her kick the bucket when she was about to kick the bucket.

He stood up. Sakura didn't stop pacing, raving, or acting like a looney.

Sasuke took a few steps toward her and made a cage around her with his palms against the wall. She stopped moving.

"So you're angry," he said flatly.

She nodded, her eyes swimming slightly and looking disoriented. Wow. His theory had been right on: Sakura lost her focus easily with him around. A bit like how he couldn't seem to resist the urge to tear out her neck when he was in close proximity with her. Her neck was so _nice_ smelling. A growl rumbled in his chest, his eyes flickering red for a second.

She whimpered slightly. This was a bit of a mutual benefit for both of them. She would stop ranting, and he could test his limits this way, never mind Naruto's endless teasing if he could witness this.

He paused. Then he bent his neck slightly and pressed his nose and mouth to the hollow between her jaw and her neck, drinking in the appetizing scent. It took every fiber of his self control not to pull back his lips, expose his teeth, and…_No._

Sasuke pulled back panting heavily, and managed to look her in the eyes. Sakura looked confused and slightly frightened. He sighed with relief. At least she hadn't thought that had been some kind of romantic move. It hadn't. On the contrary, it was probably a test of his conscience: the wolf, who wanted her flesh, and the boy, who wanted…_no!_ said his mind. He wouldn't finish that thought.

Sakura had understood. She had good reason to be frightened. One small twitch of his lip and she would be dead right then.

He slid his hands down to her shoulders and let them rest there. "Still angry?"

She collapsed against the wall. "Iie. More like frightened. But I knew you could do it, you know? You're my Sasuke-kun," she said, smiling slightly. A tremor went down his back. He didn't want to hear her say that.

"You're overly-confident in me," he told her condescendingly. "You're also too optimistic. I'm not as much of an angel as you think."

"Iie, probably not," she said thoughtfully. "I don't care, though."

He didn't want to hear that, either. He took his hands off of her shoulders and turned to walk out of the door. This was getting to sentimental for his tastes, and the last person he wanted to be sentimental with was Haruno Sakura, a girl who would probably stalk him if they didn't already live in the same building.

-

"Are you _sure_ this doesn't hurt?" Tenten asked skeptically, sponging a very deep gash on the inside of Neji's forearm.

"Hn," said Neji.

She sighed and started winding a gauze bandage around it. Unlike the light cut on his face, this one might be serious if it got infected. She paused, unwound the bandage, and got out a bucket of salve. Neji eyed the green oil forlornly from the corner of his eye. Tenten's treatments were usually from Sakura, who's homemade salves were known to sting like heck.

He flinched against his will as she vigorously rubbed the stuff into his suddenly searing cut. "Ah, gomen," she said mischievously, and scooped out another large glob with her finger, cheerfully massaging it into the cut. He knew that she knew he was suffering more than healing from her treatments.

Finally, he jerked away his arm in annoyance.

"Oh, you're no fun, Neji-kun," she said to him. "Maybe you're hungry! All men are crabby when they're on an empty stomach." His eyes widened. Tenten's cooking could kill also. Her concoctions might as well have been labeled "BEWARE: FOOD POISONING".

He'd been on the receiving end of a few of the odd viruses that wormed their ways into her cooking. He'd also been the guinea pig of several of said platters. It wasn't something he wanted to make a hobby of.

"Caserole!" she chirped in a happy sing-song voice.

She set down a plate of what looked like a cremated rat. Neji considered it, and scooted his chair in an angle away from the table. "Iie."

Tenten looked confused. "No, you won't eat it, or no, it's not casserole?"

Neji considered. "Both."

Tenten pouted. "What would you rather do then? Eating is the solution to everything." She pulled out a chair and sat next to Neji, her fuzzy slippers looking absurdly colorful against the drab colors of the kitchen.

"You're a woman. Your world revolves around bingeing and weight loss," Neji said expertly. "I would much prefer doing something else. Perhaps we could…play music together?"

The idea of music was usually music to Tenten's ears, no pun intended. Today, she found that she was not quite in the right mood for music-playing. However, she voted that Ino would skin them alive if they didn't get their act together in time for the end-of year party, and practicing her bass was probably in order. She nodded, and went to get it, with Neji close behind.

Their two cases were zipped up and lying against the quiet walls of the music rehearsal room. She picked hers up and he picked up his guitar. They walked outside and sat under her usual practice tree, tuning to each other as quietly as possible. Neji didn't say much, so Tenten filled the silence with amiable and random chatter.

They didn't actually manage to get much practice done, but that was typical of the cheerful Tenten: she tended to get off track and wind up completing whatever it was she was supposed to be doing anyways.

So, if the point of the afternoon was to practice, then the two wolves had undoubtedly missed the point.

-

"Hinata-chan! Look at this!"

Naruto charged out to the front yard, where Hinata was sitting and sketching, flashing a graying newspaper. Hinata looked up from her drawing, looking surprised and nervous at the sudden appearance of her crush. She dropped the book and stood up.

"Naruto-kun? W-What's wrong?"

The yellow-haired wolf sat down at the tree and tugged at Hinata's sleeve until she sat down too. "Look at this," he said, jabbing his index finger repeatedly at a large article in the center of the page. Hinata took the newspaper from him, her eyes trailing down to the finer print around a large square black-and-white picture that was the centerpiece.

She had a sharp intake of breath fill her lungs when she read it.

"N-Naruto-kun…isn't t-this…?"

Naruto nodded, his cerulean blue eyes serious for once. In the picture was two goofy-looking rangers, standing in the clearing where Hinata had been changed. In the ground was Naruto's pawprint, still perfectly preserved.

"H-How? Wouldn't the m-mud have s-swallowed it up?"

Naruto shrugged. "I thought it would, but I guess not. If Neji gets a wind of this, then we're going to have to move out and Gaara's going to get the last laugh. We should have been more careful and wiped out the paw print, but I guess we were careless enough to forget."

Hinata slumped against the tree. She didn't want to leave the orphanage and she knew that Naruto didn't want to either. She turned to look at his sad expression, and realized just how deeply she had fallen in love with him. Sometimes it was so much it hurt. At least Tenten wouldn't worry about her anymore.

Naruto turned and looked back at her, catching her expression. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Aw, don't worry about it, Hinata-chan! We'll all be fine. Neji can be a human ice cube, but he's pretty good at making the best decisions." He scowled. "Thinking about those things makes my head hurt."

Hinata smiled slightly, blushing at the hand still resting on her shoulder shyly. She tried to remind herself that Naruto still had a crush on Sakura, but it really couldn't daunt her spirits much.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, Hinata-chan?" 

"W-Why do you l-like Sakura-chan?"

Naruto looked slightly surprised. "Well, she's pretty and smart and very, very bad to mess with." He laughed lightheartedly. "She's never going to stop loving Sasuke-teme, though, which everybody but him can tell. Too bad for a poor guy like me."

Hinata remembered to make mental note of what he had said. _I'm not pretty, and I'm not easily prone to anger. Tenten says I'm smart, but I think that was just to be nice._

Hinata was also glad that Naruto was probably the only person on earth that would not question why she had asked him that, and would just continue staring into space. He took his hand off of her shoulder, and instead played with the grass. The newspaper lay forgotten beside them.

"I would miss this old place, though, if we did have to move," Naruto said, sounding saddened. "At least I wouldn't be leaving behind the Pack. Or a nice person who cooks good ramen like you, Hinata-chan."

She blushed furiously.

"Aaah, it would be wonderful if you were my wife. I'd get delicious big ramen bowls every day," he said happily. She blushed even redder. He turned to look at her brightly, smiling wide.

"Na, na, Hinata-chan! Why are you all red?"

She shook her head and looked anywhere but at Naruto. "N-Nothing at all!"

-

Ino was in a serious self-pity mode.

It didn't happen often. The up-beat blonde's fast-moving personality usually was going too many miles an hour to allow her to beat herself up over a guy like normal girls. Emotional wrecks weren't her expertise, so maybe that's why her body was rejecting the tumult of depression so badly.

Okay, so she had fallen for a werewolf and best friend. It was something that a lot of her romance novels stashed under the bed covered. When it came to the real thing, romance novels were a bunch of crap. Either that, or the girls in them were really, really brave to have done the things they did.

For a normal teenage girl, you had a succession of boyfriends. Ino realized that sadly, there had really only been the one guy for her so far, if not all of her life.

And then he goes and gets together with an _ugly, crybaby, enemy_ wolf.

Alright, so the "ugly" and "crybaby" parts were over exaggerated. Maybe Temari was beautiful in her own way, and Ino was just too jealous to see it. She didn't want to think of it that way, that she was scared. _Is Temari more beautiful than I am?_

She felt selfish and disgusted with herself, but the question was really eating her up. The real question was something along the lines of, _Did Shikamaru really choose her over me, his lifelong friend?_ The first question was just a lot easier to think.

The living room had one good, fluffy sofa and another one that creaked and you could feel the springs of the cushion through. She chose the fluffier one and let her spine creak as it sunk into the backing. She would watch TV, but all that seemed to be on were soap operas, which means romance. Ino was sick of romance. She wanted to throw it out the window and shoot it to pieces with a machine gun before it hit the ground.

She was startled out of her reverie by none other than Shikamaru, his hands in his pockets and looking the definition of bored.

"Yo, Ino."

He sat down next to her and sank into an identical slump. He gestured towards the TV. "Aren't you going to turn it on?" he asked, sounding tired and monotonous. She almost laughed. Classic Shikamaru for you.

"Iie, there's nothing good on."

They fell into a compatible silence that had evolved over their childhood friendship. Somewhere in that reverie, he reached out his hand and took hers. It wasn't really anything romantic. It was a friendly handhold, like he had done when her first wolf canines had grown in and she had been frightened and like she had done for him when he had the fever when they were 12.

"Is there something between you and Temari?" asked Shikamaru finally. Ino snorted. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

He shook his head. "Well, women are troublesome. She's never done anything to you and you've never done anything to her, and yet you hate each other's guts. I don't get it." Ino gaped at him, and then turned her attention back to the ceiling.

"God, you really are clueless."

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome women. It's your fault that you're so hard to understand." Ino glared at him.

"Is it really so hard for you to realize why we're so angry at each other?" Shikamaru looked at her carefully, trying to gauge what the safe answer would be. He squeezed her hand gently, stalling for time.

Seconds ticked by. Ino blew a tuft of blonde bang out of her face and stood up, pulling her hand out of Shikamaru's grasp. "Seriously, you suck," she yelled at him. "We've been friends for decades and yet you can't even tell when I'm hurt." She stomped out of the room.

-

Gaara was back.

Well, everybody had noticed, but they preferred to ignore the fact. Temari treated him with flaunting disrespect and Kankurou maintained the careful brotherly friendship as usual. The other Pack ignored him completely.

He wasn't in a good mood. Nobody but Matsuri could approach and escape with their head still intact, (quite literally). Nobody was stupid enough to try the patience of Subaku no Gaara after he had so obviously lost a battle for land. This was _humiliating_.

Even Matsuri didn't try and talk to him while she was near him. She merely sat for hours next to him while he stared in silence and she nodded, trying her best not to fall asleep. There was nothing better for her to do, so she waited for him to come out of his obsessive thoughts with avenging his defeat.

Things were going rocky at the orphanage.

**A/N: Multiple things going on in this chapter…Please review!**


	14. Escape

**A/N: Have I mentioned that I love fluff? Yes? OK.**

**This chapter shall be interesting. I'm not too good at writing this stuff, so please bear with me and try to imagine the scene in your head instead of sticking to my poor dialogue, kay? And judging by that imaginative scene you conjured up, please drop a review at the end of the chapter. Thanks!**

-

**Hallow Moon,**

**Silhouette Phase:**

**Escape**

-

_Myths are the dreams of mankind, at once utterly strange and hauntingly familiar._

_-The Illustrated Book of Myths: Tales and Legends of the World, Retold by Neil Philip_

-

"This is bad."

Neji's fists were clenched tightly around the newspaper, the knuckles white. His pale eyes scanned the surrounding article quickly. "The rangers think that it's too big for an ordinary wolf, so they had scientists come in. They think they might have discovered a 'new' creature," said Naruto.

Neji shot up out of the fluffy living room sofa abruptly, his spine straight as a ruler and his features arranged into the best poker face in eternity. "We're leaving," he said flatly. Tenten jumped up right after him and swore very loudly. Then everybody had a cause to jump. Tenten never used profanities. Then:

"Damn you to hell and back, Hyuuga Neji! We're perfectly fine as we are!"

Neji turned his head slowly at her and nodded. Tenten sat stiffly back down. "You agree? Then why are we leaving?" she asked, still furious. Neji shook his head. And shook it again, putting the newspaper carefully and slowly onto the rotting coffee table.

Tenten looked close to tears now. "Neji-kun? We're not really leaving, right?"

Her small features seemed to shrink even more, her eyes wide and brimming with tears all of a sudden. In a werewolf Pack, the Alpha's word was law. And Neji, once he had made up his mind, was not going to change it. Even Tenten recognized that, on a matter as serious as this one, she could do nothing whatsoever to even sway his decision, and she was giving up.

Sasuke and Shikamaru, on either side of Tenten, scooted minimally away from her. One of Tenten's crying jags wasn't something a normal male teenager wanted to be involved with.

Neji took a step to start walking out of the room, but paused to look over his shoulder at the door. "Tenten. I need to speak with you," he said coldly at the door. Tenten hastily wiped her streaming eyes on the back of her hand and got up to follow him while the rest of the Pack sat in a dazed sort of silence in the living room.

He took her hand and led her out to the backyard, let them out of a gate almost completely hidden by a rosebush in the surrounding brick wall, and into the surrounding forest. The smell of pine was overwhelming, and fresh, dry twigs made clean snapping sounds beneath their feet. Tenten was bemused by now. If he wanted to just talk to her alone, the hallway would have been sufficient.

"Neji-kun? Where are we going?" she asked, her tears forgotten.

Neji didn't answer.

At last, he stopped abruptly in the middle of the woods, at no particular place, it seemed to Tenten. There was no clearing, trail, or any special markers that she could see. Neji, however, had obviously sensed something about this spot that she had not. This was proven correct when he motioned to a huge oak tree in front of them.

"Look at the tree," he said.

She looked at it. It didn't seemed familiar. She shrugged at him. "It's an oak. What about it?"

"You cried here, a few years ago. You missed your family. I saw you."

She bit her lip. She remembered that, but she had not remembered this particular tree. It was embarrassing that Neji should have seen her. She dropped his hand, and sank down in the mossy ground around the roots of the giant sentinel. Her mousy bangs frizzed over her hands as she bent to take her face into her palms.

A second later, she heard the audible crunch as Neji sat down beside her.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked, her voice muffled through her hands. Some shifting noises. She looked up to see Neji peering thoughtfully at her. A fluttery feeling in her stomach made itself known. Self-consciously, she realized that she hadn't showered in a while.

"You will feel better away from all the rest of the wolves," he said, as if it were obvious.

"What makes you think that you know me so well?" she challenged. Neji turned to look up at the greenish light filtering through the canopy of the trees. His pale eyes were focused on a bluebird, nesting peacefully in the arms of another tree, his lips pulled into a perfectly straight line, but in a way that gave Tenten the suspicion that he was smiling.

"You are Tenten."

She wasn't quite sure what he meant by that, but got the sneaking feeling that it was something of a compliment. She decided that she was not in the mood to thank him for it, and promptly stayed in silence.

-

"Naruto, don't _touch me._"

"Aw, Sakura-chan, but it's so fun."

"NARUTO JUST STOP!"

"Sakura-chan…"

Outside the door, Ino and Lee exchanged glances. "Is it just me, or does this sound wrong to you?" said Ino wickedly to the weeping Green Beast beside her. Lee didn't think it was funny at all.

"Sakura-chan has chosen Naruto-kun over me…" he sobbed.

Ino rolled her eyes and shook him by the shoulders so hard HIS eyes rolled. "God, Lee, you didn't actually think you had a chance with her, right? Besides, I was just joking. There is no way that something like that could happen between _Naruto_ and Sakura. Jeez, get a grip."

A moan came from behind the door. "Naruto…"

Ino's eyes bugged. "You know what? On second thought, you might not be so off after all." Lee let out a colossal wail. The blonde of the two quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.

Too late. A curious Sakura poked her head outside of the door. She looked more than a bit confused when she saw Lee lying sprawled on the floor, out cold, with tears still streaming down his face, and Ino blushing like there was no tomorrow to be caught eavesdropping.

"Eh, Ino-pig? What's happening?"

Ino raised a suggestive eyebrow at her friend. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Sakura furrowed her brow. "What? I'm showing Naruto how to do his math homework. He doesn't get it _at all_, and he won't pay attention. He keeps poking me in the shoulder." Ino's eyes widened as she realized the misunderstanding. She hastily shuffled a few steps backward, nearly tripping over Lee's unconscious body. Sakura squinted her eyes suspiciously at her friend.

"What did you _think_ I was doing?"

Naruto pushed open the door behind Sakura, waving around a piece of lined notebook paper. "Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan! I think I got it!" he said excitedly. Sakura sighed, and retreated back into the room. Ino sighed openly in relief, and bent down to try and revive Lee.

-

"Neji-kun, do you like Tollhouse cookies?" asked a cheerful Tenten two hours later as she pulled open the screen door, purposefully ignoring the tension waves radiating from Neji. Neji fought not to show his confusion about a "Tollhouse" brand and apprehension at the mention of food cooked by Tenten.

"Iie."

Tenten's brown eyes widened in disbelief. "Wow. I didn't think you would actually have never heard of Tollhouse cookies. They're only on sale in every grocery market in the world." Neji continued to stare blankly at her. She sighed and pulled out a chair for him to sit in while she pulled out a bright yellow package from the fridge.

"I suppose you'll have to try them yourself, then. I warn you, I'm not too good with baking the-"

Neji nodded quickly. "I know. Perhaps I should…?" Tenten backed away from him as he stood up, his outstretched hand reaching for the cookie package.

"Not on my life. You probably cook worse than I do, and God help us then."

-

3AM In The Morning

About 12 Hours Later

"Wake up."

Tenten rolled over groaned groggily. "Wha?"

Sasuke's features gradually swam into view. They were drawn with tension, even for his usually mask like face. Tenten sat bolt right up, letting the blankets drop into her lap. She wasn't shy like normal girls when a guy saw her in her pajamas. It was just an oversized T-shirt and pants, anyways.

However, she hated the Uchiha. Not for any particular reason: more for the fact that Neji hated him, and that was good enough for her.

"What do you want?" she hissed furiously, blinking rapidly to adjust to the light. She realized with a jolt that it was still pitch black outside.

"We're leaving," he stated simply. Tenten looked around and saw that shadowy shapes were surrounding her bed: the Pack. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and did a quick head check: everybody was here, including Hinata.

She barely had time to throw on a jacket before Neji had grabbed her shoulder in a viselike grip and was steering her down the steps, the almost invisible brushes of everybody else's feet against the steps nearly inaudible. They were out of the front door in moments, the blast of icy air hitting her with an uncomfortable smack. Her wolf body temperature immediately flared up, and she felt a little better.

As soon as they were out of earshot of the orphanage, she and Ino exploded at Neji at once.

"We're leaving _now_?" said Ino, her face turning audibly purple even in the dark.

Neji nodded in the dark. "As soon as possible, under cover of the night. Leave your things. We can replenish in the next town."

Tenten gaped in openmouthed fury at the Alpha. This was _unbelievable_. One small _pawprint_, darn it all, and he was making them go in full-out evacuation. She was going to _wring his neck_ until he turned _blue_, and then some. Embarrassingly, when she opened her mouth to let him know, nothing came out but a high-pitched squeak.

She hastily closed it again, as one by one the shapes around her dropped silently to wolf form, even the fuming Ino and the cool-as-a-cucumber Neji. Tenten shook the hair out of her face and morphed too, the feeling of absolute balance, speed, and power that formed in her abdomen on four legs quelling her human emotions slightly.

Tonight, she relished the feeling of her mind no longer being her own: it was invaded and pacified, pumped up and relaxed, reassured and agonized, by the seven other voices inside it, pressing the limits of her sanity and yet stimulating a sort of deep pleasure in her soul that nothing else could: this was as close as you could get to the people, or rather wolves, that you loved. She loved this. She loved them.

_Where to?_

_Do you know…where will we…_

_Sakura, do you…? Naruto, don't…do…_

…_nata…_

Their voices jumbled together and she winced, forcing it to subside to a background murmur in the back of her head as they stretched their legs as one, and began to run.

Running down the cool, hard suburban sidewalk was a much different experience than running in the woods. Here, it was exhilarating in a completely different way, the chance of being caught as the streetlamps, like fire, shone on her coat in passing.

The air shot into her head like bullets, piercing her thoughts. She ran full-out, neck and neck with the Uchiha and Neji. _It doesn't matter,_ she realized. _I can still be happy anywhere else, as long as they're with me._

They were thoughts that were meant to stay in the small private space of her wolf brain, but when Neji's wise eyes turned to meet hers for a split second as they ran, Tenten worried that they might just have leaked into the eight-way communication line of the Pack.

-

They stopped just as the tips of the sun's shooting rays were touching the graying sky, creating the familiar and warming golden-peach glow of dawn. Everybody was glad for the day to have come at last, when the night had been full of intense running. Granted, the place that Neji chose was not exactly the best hotel in the world.

Haha, hotel. It was a dumpster that reeked in the back of an orthodontists' office, which was apparently about to go out of business. It was in the shady end of town, but to the Pack, it didn't really matter. No human strength or weapon could best them, unless it contained silver. Nowadays, that wasn't too many lethal weapons.

Hinata and Shikamaru immediately collapsed next to the dumpster to sleep, staying in wolf form as it was more comfortable. The rest of them were anxious and haggard, Ino and Tenten still pretty angry, and stayed awake. Though there was nothing to do, everybody was too sugar-high to be bored.

If this hadn't happened before, then Tenten might have been much more saddened and angry. The sudden, without-warning departures from place to place that she had loved had become routine. She'd learned to keep her heart from breaking in two every time they left a town because of suspicious evidence.

_Good for you, Gaara. You got the territory. Are you happy?_ She thought to herself in human form.

The day passed that way, hiding and sneaking, feeling their own empty bellies and anxiously keeping an eye on Sasuke as his eyes got redder and redder every time he spared even the smallest glance at Sakura. Sakura, however, would just smile wearily back at him with an expression that said, _I would give you myself if I could_, and he would turn away once more.

-

Night fell again. The bodies lying lazily on the cold ground next to the dump stirred.

There was much groaning as everybody had cricks in the neck and very sore muscles. Neji was in human form, and so everybody else was too.

"Uchiha," he said flatly. Sasuke nodded, his face expressionless and his eyes like two black glass beads set into his porcelain face. The moon played tricks with the shadows across his cheekbones, as if they were shadowy fingers leaning in to take him away. The ultimate effect was eerie and disconcerting in the darkening hour.

Sakura looked frantically between the two. "What is it?" she asked, sounding like she half didn't want to know.

Sasuke glanced at her, eyes flashing red, before jerking his head away. Neji looked at her full on, however, and said, "He is going to look for a residence that we can stay at. He will be gone for a while making arrangements, possibly a few weeks. In the meantime, we will live in the nearby countryside."

Sasuke turned to go. He followed the back route of the houses, keeping close to the narrower, shadier alleys. This was a very bad place to be, and if possible, he would find a residence for them in a more respectable part of town.

Suddenly, he heard a patter of footsteps behind him. He was about to whirl and demand that the person reveal themselves, only to be hit by a scent so powerful that it could not be mistaken for another's. Sure enough, seconds later, Sakura slammed into his back, her thin, pale arms wound tightly around his waist and her head pressed into his back.

"Don't go!" she said, her voice muffled and demanding like a child's. How much like a child, he wanted to sneer, but instead his mind was dominated by her smell. The inner beast of him stirred, wondering how her neck was taste under his teeth, how her blood would pour onto his tongue.

Instead, he hesitated for a moment before turning slowly around, prying off her arms. Her eyes were wild and desperate, probably not yet coherent from the trying all-day running from the day before yesterday.

He found that he didn't care whether she was coherent or not for once.

He roughly forced her to turn around, and before she could protest, pulled her back against him, his arms snaking possessively over her smooth stomach, rumpling her shirt. He pressed his face into her hair, wanting and not wanting to inhale that intoxicating drugged smell of her skin, afraid of the dark nightmares that ensnared his mind of biting her…

And then he moaned, and slid down until his forehead was pushed against the curve of her waist, his arms, still around her middle. "Sakura, I can't have you," he said, sounding weary and slightly delirious.

Sakura was shaking. She knew, because when she put her hands out in front of her, they were vibrating uncontrollably. Then she put them over Sasuke's bigger hands, and held them there, feeling the warm thudding of a pulse through his forehead in her back. A slight feverish blush was rising up her neck, the night's cold penetrated by this unexpected twist.

"Will you still go?" she whispered, after what seemed like an eternity that way.

There was a pause, and then the rustling of fabric that indicated he was standing up. His warm arms fell away from her body, and she felt cold and alone and exposed all at once, like an empty shell. It was only a few weeks, she told herself. She was being pathetic.

Sasuke took a few slow steps past her, until she was facing his back again like it had all started. "Hai. I have to go. It is the Alpha's orders."

"Then…can't I come with you for the errand? I…would miss you, Sasuke-kun, if you were gone for that long."

The Uchiha was about to flat out tell her no, when he realized that Neji had never forbid it. Besides, his own selfish side was realizing that he had never spent more than a day or two away from Sakura at a time since the day that they had met. It would be odd not having her around to annoy him for weeks.

"Hn," he said, and continued to walk.

**A/N: Long and fluffy. Please review!**


	15. Spirit

**A/N: I've been updating really quickly lately…I guess I'm just a hopeless sucker for writing comedy and fluff, (at least, I hoped it was fluffy. Or comedic.)**

**And heck NO, this is not the end of the ShikaInoTema triangle! All the pairings will be resolved later. Hopefully much, much later. You people who aren't reviewing are stabbing me in the heart and stamping away my last breath. Shame on you. Tsk. (then again, ridding the world of such a person like me might not be so much of a shame as an enjoyment…)**

**Bah, humbug.**

-

**Hallow Moon,**

**Silhouette Phase:**

**Spirit**

-

_Cold, biting wind. Scattering, whirling autumn leaves. A full moon, glinting eerily like a Cyclops' lost eye above the world, gloating at some unseen prize that it had acquired. Tall, yellowing grasses waved gently in contrast to the harsh breezes, trees stiffly standing guard. Scents of flowers…blood._

_A large circular area in the middle of the field was flattened and trampled, the broken reeds dyed a grotesque, dripping red, black under the odd angle of moonlight. The flowers' scents was tinged darkly with smells of iron and life's' blood. The shallow breathing of some inhuman creature echoed eerily through the expanse._

_Two shadows, two silhouettes, were visible in the clearing. One was obviously dead: not moving, not stirring, no gentle rise and fall of the stomach to indicate breathing. The other was crouched over it in an odd crouch. The harsh breathing was emitting from this shape._

_It looked up. The moonlight flared blindingly white, illuminating its face in a space of violent light. Blood red eyes gleamed, set like rubies against the pale, almost stretched white skin of the person. It contrasted starkly against his spiked ebony hair. The figure on the ground was lying face up, bleeding from a large gash across its throat. It was a she, and this she had cherry-pink locks strewn across her heart-shaped features and wide, shocked eyes._

Uchiha Sasuke woke with a start, also panting heavily in real life and cold sweat streaming down his back.

It had been him. He'd killed her. Worse, he'd _bitten_ her _another_ time…probably something that a werewolf would carry around for the rest of their life if they survived the encounter. It was shameful. He looked around wildly, and let out a heavy breath when he saw Sakura's peacefully slumbering form lying next to him.

He sat up, and put his face in his hands. God, if that was a prophecy of some sort, then he was going to…he didn't even know what. Maybe shrivel up from the inside. Uchiha Sasuke was a werewolf, but he still did have a heart, however cold and calculating. He wasn't a murderer, and certainly not of Haruno Sakura, who had been an innocent girl with a future before he had condemned her to this life.

No, he was going to live and pay for what he had done to her. And pay dearly: her scent was constantly pressing on the thin boundary lines of his self control, and one day he would snap. The dream was obviously a mural of that day, and he couldn't erase the vivid scent of her sweet, sweet flesh and blood…

Yet the sight of her body, still and cold, had been terrifying to behold. His heart missed a beat when he thought of seeing that not in the dream world, but out here in the real world: the girl he had not only changed, but then killed.

Just what kind of monster was he?

He forced himself to calm down and breathe slowly. Soon, his respiration patterns were normal, cool, and steady again. Sakura stirred and made a small sound in her sleep, her pink hair strewn across her face. They were in a beat up old hotel. He felt slightly guilty that the rest of the Pack had no money and that he had managed to grab a few 20's when they had left, but saved those thoughts for later. The two grimy beds were sticky, but they were better than the dumpster behind the orthodontist's.

Sakura stirred again, and groggily cracked open her blurry green eyes. She looked both intense and childlike, lying there like that in her day clothes and blinking blearily at Sasuke. He glanced at her and looked away. He couldn't kill such a creature.

There was a rustling as she sat up. Then she got up and walked over to him, sitting down next to him on his bed. They stayed in silence for a while, Sasuke pointedly ignoring her, his breathing cool, even, and serene, while Sakura tried to look like she was perfectly fine sitting so close to Sasuke.

Then Sakura moved, curling her legs up underneath her and sitting behind Sasuke. The disarray of the ebony hair at the back of his head was nearly in her face. She felt a sudden surge of confidence. She hesitated, silently debating, and then decided she had nothing to either fear or lose. She pressed her nose into the juncture of his neck and shoulder nervously and closed her eyes. _He smells nice._

Sasuke didn't flinch under her touch, but a vein in his temple throbbed. The smooth, pearly flesh of her cheek touched his jaw as she moved slightly, her right hand moving up to tangle itself into his hair and the left encircling his arm.

"Sasuke-kun? Gomen," she whispered.

He still didn't move. She shifted again and nervously pressed her lips gently to his jawbone.

That's when he did move.

He jumped up with a growl, throwing her backwards. His eyes were bright red, his nostrils flaring. Sakura's eyes were wide and apologetic. "G-Gomen, Sasuke-kun!" she stammered. He glared at her, incinerating her nerves with those bloodthirsty eyes, and stormed out of the door.

Sakura let herself flop back onto the bed. Why did she have to make all the mistakes?

-

"Ino…"

"Don't 'Ino' me, Shikamaru."

"Ino-_sama_…"

"Haha, very funny. How bout you just shut up?"

Ino stalked faster to keep up to Neji's pace, her nose in the air and trying to freeze the tears about to leak out of the corner of her eyes. Tears for what exactly, she was still trying to figure out. Crying was shameful, especially in front of the no-moods Shikamaru. He sighed. "Mendokusai."

She promptly ignored him and stalked faster if anything, earning worried glances from Tenten and Hinata. Ino's pride refused to let her try and make up with Shikamaru. For a guy as clueless as him, he deserved a good, healthy silent treatment anyways. Maybe it would benefit him a little.

"So, where're we staying tonight?" Tenten chirped sarcastically. "_Inside_ a garbage dump? Honestly, why can't we just check in to a hotel?"

Neji's eyes stayed straight ahead when he answered. "We have no money." Tenten snorted and crossed her arms defiantly at his back, and rolled her eyes.

"Money is easier to come by than you seem to think," she mentioned. "Just for pushing people's carts to the parking lot for them at the grocery store would earn us a few bucks."

It was meant a joke. None of them would actually do it.

Neji didn't reply, which made Tenten slightly annoyed. "So, are we sleeping next to another garbage dump? Why can't we find a park?"

Neji glanced over his shoulder. "Hai, we will sleep in a park tonight."

-

Sakura sighed. Sasuke was out, probably scoping out the city, and she was stuck in a tiny, claustrophobic hotel room with nothing to do.

She briefly wondered how he was paying for a month's stay here, if it really would take that long. She also wondered what had possessed her to _kiss_ him. That sort of behavior was supposed to have been left behind in her twelve-year-old body.

She truly was sorry, however. She didn't want to be a bother to him, and she obviously was. Maybe it was the warmth of his ivory skin, or the scent that rolled off of him in huge, enticing waves. She bit her tongue. If that was what he had to deal with when she was around, then she didn't blame him for being so edgy.

The pink-haired wolf stood groggily and looked out of the window. The street below was a grayish color, as the sun started to come out from behind a giant, puffy white cloud. The buildings were not very well done, but not quite shabby either. It was a district where children could say that three meals a day was for granted.

She sighed again and changed out of her clothes, which were sticky, and pulled on an oversized T-shirt that she found in the bathroom. It smelled a little funny, but nothing seemed seriously wrong with it, so she settled in for a long, long nap.

-

"Naruto-kun? D-Daijoubu?" chirped an anxious Hinata.

Naruto scowled and crossed his arms. "I want ramen," he whined, his cerulean eyes wide and that of an innocent 5-year-old. Hinata twiddled her fingers nervously as he began to dance on the spot, attracting the unwelcome attention of a very ticked off Neji, who was having his nap disturbed.

"W-Well, maybe w-we can get y-you some later," Hinata said bracingly, though she highly doubted that precious money would be squandered on cup ramen. Besides, Naruto could chug that stuff like there was no tomorrow.

Neji threw them a glare and turned over again on the ground, instantly asleep, his shoulders rising and falling peacefully. The rest of the Pack were scattered across the green lawn of a park somewhere near the center of the city, either snoring and looking like they might doze off in a sitting position.

Hinata absently picked a few daisies and started weaving them into a crude garland, watching the little white petals shred and then fall to hide themselves among the sharp green blades of grass. A bee hummed somewhere in the nearby bush. The park was empty at this early hour, at least in this portion.

She fitted the garland shyly onto Naruto's head, as he had fallen rapidly asleep, watching a petal stick to his nose every time he breathed in. Gently, she brushed it off. He gurgled something in his sleep, and she started, relaxing when he resumed snoring. She had never, ever, loved something so much in her entire life, but he was too good for her.

Just then, Naruto rolled over into her lap, and her face burned like an iron. His head lolled on her black cargo pants, the blonde hair flopped back from his forehead and the eyes peacefully closed. He looked so much like a toddler then that she wanted to hug him. Hinata wanted to be like Naruto so much, the way that he was brave.

Everybody else was sound asleep, except for the raven-haired wolf. She smiled slightly against the strong blush that tinted her across the nose and cheeks, setting Naruto's head in the grass and propping it up with his jacket, which he had left on a park bench nearby. There was a stain across the left shoulder of his black T-shirt.

Just as she began to nod to sleep, she thought she heard a voice say something behind her, but by then, she was too far gone to be sure.

-

She woke to familiar slats in a bunk bed, the same dull gray sheets that had been wrapped around her at night for nearly her entire life.

At first, nothing felt wrong.

Then, she bolted upright as she realized where they were: back at the orphanage. Maybe this was a dream. No, it couldn't be. She had a sore spot between her shoulder blades. And Sakura was stirring next to her, her green eyes opening blearily. Wasn't she with Sasuke?

But Sasuke was there too, because he pushed aside the curtain, looking bewildered. The expression sat uncomfortably on his features, which were not used to looking confused in any way.

"S-Sakura-chan? W-Why are we b-back here?" Hinata asked nervously.

Sakura shrugged slightly, trying to act casual.

"Yo."

They all jumped a mile, turning to stare into the darkest corner of the many-walled room. Leaning relaxed against the wall was the silver-spike-haired superintendent, Hatake Kakashi. In his hand was the infamous Icha Icha Paradise.

"Kakashi-san!" Hinata squeaked in surprise.

Kakashi smiled through his strange mask at her. "Kaka-sensei to you, Hinata-chan."

"G-Gomen, Kakashi-sensei!" she said, flustered, making a deep bow but tripping over her sheets and ending up in a huge pile on the floor. Kakashi chuckled slightly, catching Sasuke's eye. Sasuke didn't look happy at all, and neither did Neji.

"I suppose you're all wondering why you're back?" he said lazily.

"Damn right," Sasuke growled, his hands clenched in fists, looking positively furious. "The day that I forgive you for this is the day that hell freezes over, Kakshi!"

Tenten clucked at him, looking amused despite her stern tone. "Geez, Uchiha, such language. I thought that you gentlemen knew better." Ino smirked slightly, crossing her arms, as Sasuke shot Tenten a murderous glance. Neji ignored them all pointedly and faced Kakashi.

"Superintendent, kindly inform us why we are here."

Kakashi inclined his head slightly. "Glad to see that two amongst our company have manners, including myself, of course."

"Well, what happened?" said Sakura.

"We, that is to say Jiraiya, Tsunade, and I, found you all sleeping in that park the next town over the night after you go missing. Naturally search squads were sent out, but we were on business at the time, and happened to run into you. That was a surprise," he chuckled. "Your escape wasn't very well thought out."

Neji's expression was stony. "Will you try to stop us if we leave again?"

Hinata felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. Now that they were back, she felt that she did not want to leave again at all. Apparently the others shared her feelings, because nobody was seconding Neji's question. There was a frigid silence that was draped over the scene.

Kakashi shrugged, seemingly not to have a care in the world. "I don't suppose I could if I wanted to."

Sasuke smirked confidently, taking a step forward toward Neji. "Hyuuga, I'm not going to leave," he said.

Sakura felt a jolt of surprise. She had never expected Sasuke to have any attachments or reasons to stay for this place. In fact, she hadn't thought that Sasuke formed any attachments at all.

Neji did a quick scope at his Pack, all of whose faces were agreeing with his Beta. Then he turned to Kakashi.

"We will stay for now until we reach a final decision, superintendent. I thank you for your trouble."

Kakashi inclined his head again, and was gone out the door in the blink of an eye. Gaara and Temari emerged from behind the other side of the curtain, looking furious at the sight of the larger Pack, who was back already.

Sasuke allowed a smirk of satisfaction to grace his features.

-

"Sasuke-kun, don't move so much," said Sakura around a mouthful of bandages.

Sasuke's large hand twitched within her two smaller ones as she disinfected a cut between his thumb and index finger with iodine. There was some kind of poisonous plant in it, so better safe than sorry, even for a werewolf. Hives were no fun.

She wrapped the bandage carefully around it. "Sasuke-kun, I love you!" she said cheerily as she continued to tie the bandage.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her, sure that she was going insane. He placed a hand on her forehead. It was a tad warm. "Sakura. Are you sick?"

Sakura smiled, slightly delirious. "Of course not! I just wanted to say how much I love you and the world and Ino-pig and the Pack and…!"

That did it. This was not normal Sakura.

One thermometer reading later, and it was discovered that Sakura had Howling Fever, a disease of the werewolf body that wasn't very serious, but did not go away, like human illnesses like colds, right away.

She was put into bed, and Sasuke pulled up a chair next to her bed. "I didn't need this bandaged," he muttered scornfully at his hand.

Sakura smiled, looking befuddled, up at him from the bed.

"I know you didn't need it bandaged. I just don't like seeing you hurt," she explained.

He grunted. "I know."

**A/N: Sorry for the slow update!**


	16. Sick!

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! It's been busy around here lately, I have a LOT of stuff to attend to recently. So I'm really sorry, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. (It's satisfying, I hope.)**

**It is just me, or does it seem like I start almost every chapter with an apology and a lame excuse? Let me know if you agree…**

-

**Hallow Moon,**

**Silhouette Phase:**

**Sick!**

-

_This guy has been pushing me and pushing me, and I am SICK of it!_

_-NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM_

-

"You know, that probably is not good for you," Ino chided.

Sakura smiled giddily and continued to stuff sour gummy worms into her wide-open mouth, cheerily tipsy and happily unaware of the world around her. Hinata smiled faintly, a cross between amused and worried for her friend's mental stability. She was now feebly trying to touch her nose with her tongue, (it was a failed attempt.)

Sasuke, sitting on the other side of her, smirked, looking amused. He reached over and took a gummy for himself, tossing it arrogantly into the air and catching it into his mouth without even having the ends hang out the side. Ino glared at him resentfully, while Tenten looked positively startled.

"I didn't think you had a sweet tooth, Uchiha."

He shrugged indifferently.

Sakura giggled, sweat streaming down the sides of her reddening face, and the sheets tangled up all over her. "Sasuke-kun has a sweet tooth?"

"Oh, God," Ino muttered despairingly into her hands. Sasuke smirked even more arrogantly down at the pink-haired wolf, but did not reply except with a small grunt. This made Sakura flush even more, looking positively tomato red.

"Careful, Sakura. If you get too red, Sasuke might want to eat you too: after all, he's never been good at resisting tomatoes, _or_ your…ahem…_feminine charms_," Tenten said deviously in a stage whisper. Sasuke choked on his gummy worm while Ino rolled around in laughter.

Once he had avoided getting the Heimlich from Naruto and regained some of his dignity and composure, Sasuke managed to give a very hairy eyeball to Tenten. "I have perfect control over my hunger," he retorted indignantly.

She smiled that same devious grin. "Of course you do. I'm not talking about _that_ type of hunger," she said, a suggestive glint in her eye and her expression full of contained mischief. He choked again.

Neji was calmly indifferent to all of this. "Stop, Tenten. I do not want to needlessly lose my Beta because he choked and met a sorry death by gummi worm."

Tenten rolled her eyes, but obliged. "Why don't you ever let us poke some fun at each other?" she grumbled unhappily under her breath. Neji shook his head at her.

"Tenten, you will never mature if you do not learn seriousness."

"I didn't see you being serious after Lee fed you that curry."

"…"

"SEE! You admit that I have a point!"

"Tenten, I did not admit anything."

"Your silence spoke for you."

"…"

"You just did it again."

Naruto was studying the two's bickering with intent, narrowed eyes. "I have an idea," he finally said while they began to talk so fast that nobody could tell what they were saying. "Why don't you two take this outside?"

"Your best idea of the century, baka," Ino said enthusiastically.

Shikamaru shook his head, seemingly preferring to pretend that he was not in the company of idiots. Ino kicked him in the shin under the drooping covers of Sakura's sickbed. A vein throbbed in his temple as he bit his tongue very hard to keep from screaming.

"Oi, you sitting ducks over there," drawled a feminine voice behind them.

Ino crossed her arms and refused to turn around as Temari sauntered up to them. Shikamaru immediately stopped biting his tongue and tried not to have a nosebleed, as the fishnet stockings she was wearing left little to the imagination.

Ino continued to be icy-looking, wishing that all men like Shikamaru were a snowball in Hell.

"We're taking care of Sakura-chan," said the always-oblivious Naruto happily. "Want to sit with us, Temari-chan?"

Frigid silence. Crickets. Only Naruto would be stupid enough to call her Temari-chan

"Naruto-kun…y-you might w-want to apologize," Hinata suggested quietly as the silence continued to sit over the group. Naruto shrugged, apparently at a loss for what to apologize for. Temari tightened a pigtail and sniffed disdainfully.

"No need. Shikamaru, I was hoping you were free to go and get some coffee down the street, but if you're too busy watching _her_," she sneered in the direction of Sakura's red face, "then I understand."

Shikamaru hesitated, and then stood up. "Iie, it's alright. I'll come with you." Ino let out a string of profanities under her breath.

Sasuke's piercing black eyes glared at Temari, the self-assured, complacent expression on her face. "Leave. Your presence isn't doing much for her illness," he indicated Sakura. Temari raised and eyebrow and laughed heartily, to his surprise, even with her mouth wide open, the sneer still in perfect placement.

"Overprotective of your woman, eh, Uchiha? Can't even let her take an insult. Tch," she laughed, and looped an arm around Shikamaru, leading him out of the room.

Once she was out, Sasuke swore very loudly. Tenten flinched. "Shut up and don't ever say that word again in _my_ presence, Uchiha," she spat.

He ignored her and stood up. "I'm going out," he said simply, and walked out of the room.

Neji shook his head. "That is another one that needs to control his temper." Tenten sighed. "Neji-kun, I think we have worse things to worry about than what the Uchiha does when he's pissed." Neji did not answer.

-

"Ino-san…" Hinata murmured desperately, trying to console her sobbing friend.

The blonde chuckled through her streaming tears. "Ino-chan, Hinata, Ino-chan."

"Gomen, Ino-chan," Hinata said apologetically. "Couldn't y-you and Shikamaru-kun j-just…?"

"Talk things out?" Ino suggested bitterly. "Yeah, no offense, Hinata, but I don't think the stupid bastard's going to listen."

Hinata ignored her swearing and patted her back, handing her a large slab of chocolate that had come from the many candy bags at the side of the sleeping Sakura's bed. "E-Eat this. It a-always made me f-feel better when I w-was sad."

Naruto barged in loudly, his face smeared positively brown and sticky with most of the rest of the chocolate that Hinata had broken her slab off of. "Hinata-chan! Let's go play badminton!" he announced. Hinata's pale eyes widened, her face burning red. Ino smiled slightly.

"Go ahead. I'll be alright. I'll keep Sakura company."

Hinata hesitantly followed the ecstatic blonde out of the room, and down the steps. He was practically floating, though floating would not have caused nearly as much noise as Naruto was making, clambering and banging while almost yelling out whatever nonsense he was spouting.

"Ano, N-Naruto-kun…" she murmured shyly, not wanting to burst his bubble and twiddling her fingers nervously. He abruptly turned around and nearly banged into her, though the wide, goofy smile was still plastered in place.

"I d-don't know h-how to p-play badminton."

He shrugged, seeming not at all deterred. "Neither do I, Hinata-chan! That makes two of us. We could go annoy Kaka-sensei!"

She looked at him with curious, wide eyes. "Sensei? N-Naruto-kun, what do y-you learn from h-him?"

Naruto suddenly sobered up, his cheeks slightly red. "Na, na, Hinata-chan! There's no need for a lady like you to know that! Let's go!"

-

"Neji, please, stop it…"

"Hn."

"I'm _begging_ you, please, stop doing that."

"Tenten…"

"NEJI! THERE YOU GO! NOW WAS THAT SO DIFFICULT?"

"Hn."

"My God, is it me, or do the conversations in this orphanage always sound wrong from the third person point of view?" asked a very confused Ino as she listened outside of the bathroom door, (yes, the bathroom). It wasn't like she was eavesdropping: not on purpose, anyways. Their voices were loud enough to deafen an army.

_Inside the Door_

Tenten shook her head and lowered her voice slightly. "My God, Neji, do you always scrape your nails against mirrors when you're annoyed with somebody?" Neji eyed her balefully, and lowered his hand from the mirror.

"Thank you," Tenten sighed, closing the toilet seat and sitting down on it. It was a bit of a cramped quarter in the loo, but it would do. "Now isn't that silence wonderful?" When Neji did not reply and only continued to stare balefully at her, she glared back at him. "I _said_, isn't it _wonderful_?"

"Hai."

"That's better."

Silence. Chirp. Chirp.

"Now tell me the real reason that you wanted to leave this orphanage," she demanded of him. "I know that it wasn't because of the pawprint, and I was stupid enough to let you try to run away anyways. Give me the truth and nothing but the truth, Neji."

Neji hesitated, and decided that she would probably beat him up if he lied now. "I do not want to endanger the Pack any longer."

Tenten snorted. "And? Why the sudden move?"

"Gaara and his Pack pose a threat to us. They are very powerful, despite the fact that we outnumber them 2 to 1. It would be unwise for a brawl to break out here, so instead of all the fighting trials, I decided to move would be best."

Tenten opened her mouth to interrupt, but he stopped her with one icy glare from his eyes.

"However, it is apparent that the seven of you hold too many sentimental attachments to this…building…for me to force you to leave without a fight. You have heard my reasons, Tenten. May I leave now?"

The Weapons Mistress paused, and eventually said very slowly, "Hai."

Neji twisted the doorknob without turning around or breaking eye contact with Tenten, and did not open the door. "You should not be angry with me, Tenten. What I did was for the good of the Pack."

To his immense surprise, she sighed and put her head in her hands. "I know. That's what makes it so much worse."

He did not question her further, and instead opened the door and tripped promptly over Ino.

-

Ino, it turns out, had a fractured leg bone.

She was not seriously hurt besides that, and Neji had escaped completely unharmed. Fortunately, the leg had healed by the time that dinner was ready, and she was no longer shooting evil glares at the Pack Alpha and had settled down to a normal Ino mood level.

Her mood was not improved by the fact that she had turned down Shikamaru's offer for her to lean on him so that she did not have to limp. Looking hurt and angry, he had left, snaking an arm obviously around Temari's waist, and leading her out to the backyard to make out.

She was on the verge of bursting violently into tears and having a mental break down right then and there in the kitchen when Matsuri timidly tapped her on the shoulder. The blonde would have been more surprised if she were feeling sane, as the other Pack had been pointedly avoiding their Pack, (with the exception of Shikamaru and Temari.)

"Ano, Ino-san…do you have an extra towel? I want to take a shower," she murmured softly, looking very timid at the pale white color Ino's face was, and the stretched skin over her knuckles as she had balled her hands into tight fists, clamped down hard into her lap.

"Hai…excuse me," she told the table distractedly, feeling her friends' worried stares boring into her back as she led Matsuri to the bedroom.

She handed her the towel, (practically throwing it over the brunette's head), and bolted, running noisily down the steps, already sobbing, and into the front yard to weep to the world.

-

"Matsuri…"

"Gaara-sensei, gomen! I won't do it again, I promise!" Matsuri said shrilly, her eyes wide with shame and her entire frame shaking with fright at the murderous expression on Gaara's face.

"It is not you," he said flatly. "Temari is testing my patience."

Matsuri furrowed her brow and bit her lip. She, of course, knew of the older she-wolf's relationship with Shikamaru, but had refrained from mentioning it. From her reaction, Gaara obviously also knew that she knew.

"Ano…Temari-san isn't actually…hurting us, is she?" she said, about ready to eat her own words as soon as they were out of her mouth.

He showed no emotions, though the set of his jaw and the tiniest arch of one red eyebrow told her that he was a cross between amused and surprised at her reaction. She rarely ever questioned his ideas.

She shivered. The window was open, and she was wearing only a large T-shirt that Tsunade had found her, which billowed in huge white waves around her small frame. Wordlessly, Gaara took off his own baggy outer garment and draped it around her shoulders. It was made of leather, and very heavy, and rather like a cloak.

"A-Arigato," she said, her teeth chattering.

Gaara nodded curtly.

There was silence as moonlight, like molten silver, poured onto the slats of the bunk beds, the two neat rows of them, in the dormitory and the two lone figures standing right in the middle, bathing in the darkness as if they were drinking it like water.

"G-Gomen, I should have told you," Matsuri apologized again, realizing that he was probably annoyed that she had not discussed this problem with him earlier, (she had known earlier than him, as Matsuri spent much more time with Temari than Gaara did).

Instead, his face showed no emotions whatsoever, though there was a millisecond flash of gold into his eyes. "I am not angry with you," he said.

"Gomen!" she said desperately again. Gaara could make her feel so ashamed of herself, with the way that he never yelled and instead showed cold disappointment. "I will never do this again, I swear it, Gaara-sensei! Please forgive me. I was not aware that it was of such importance to you."

Instead of rebuking her and telling her to shut up, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and said in a low voice, "I said that I am not angry with you. Do you doubt my word?"

A shiver ran from her head to her toes. "I-Iie, Gaara-sensei."

"Good. Go to sleep."

-

**A/N: Please review! (And again, is it just me, or do I end most chapters with that?)**


	17. Rebirth

**A/N: OK, I'm TRYING to make it have more fluffy moments without making it totally random, (like people are going along in the plot and suddenly there's this mushy stuff of I LOVE YOU write randomly in the scene). I hate that, but unfortunately, it's the way that I write. Forgive me, please! I am only human, so I still have lots of shortcomings, (though I do seem pretty perfect, don't I? Haha, just kidding. Far from it.)**

**Please review, and thank you for the ones on the last chapter! They made me feel proud and happy and all glowy-warm inside. Much thanks! (And I know, I don't really usually like Ino either, but my sympathies with the cruel situation I have put her in right now are undoubted…)**

**I am also going on vacation soon, so if my updates start coming much slower, that is why.**

**-**

**Hallow Moon,**

**Dance Phase:**

**Rebirth**

**-**

…_the master accompanies, and as the girls dance, the rice plants dance too.  
Parted for now; until we meet again, even if I travel a thousand miles…_

_-Tsugaru Jongara Bushi_

_-_

Blur. Fuzz.

Blink. Blink.

Haruno Sakura opened her bleary green eyes, groaning as the room tilted and then snapped abruptly into focus for her. She felt something disgusting rising up in her throat, and fought the urge to heave her breakfast over the side of the bed, (Kakashi would kill her).

She shifted in the bed slightly, feeling the slats pressing into her back against the mattress, confused and disoriented. Her memory of the past few days was a sort of dizzy blur, as if she had been drunk.

Her forehead was burning up. Was she sick?

She turned her head to the left, and there was Ino. On the right was Sasuke. "Hm? Ohayo…"she said, her voice coming out as a sort of raspy croak. Ino sighed and shook her head at the pink-haired girl.

"Stop trying to talk. You sound horrible."

Sakura poked out her tongue and attempted to lick her lips. They were cracked and painful to the touch, as was her tongue. She withdrew her tongue back into the parched hole of her mouth, and made a sort of angry pouting expression. Ino laughed, a light tinkly one that Sakura hadn't heard in a while. She was glad that Ino was at least a little happier now.

"Sakura, you had a nosebleed," Sasuke commented flatly.

Immediately, she brought her right hand up to her face, and was not surprised to find a semi-sticky crust across her lip and nose. When she drew her hand away far enough for it to focus, it was tinged with dark red crust. She made a sour expression and wiped it on the bed sheet.

Ino caught her hand. "Who do you think is doing the laundry/" she snorted.

Sakura hastily hid her hand under the blanket, and wiped it on the leg of her pajamas. Sasuke's eyebrow rose in an elegantly amused arch, having been the only one besides Sakura to notice the small motion. Sakura winked at him, still feeling slightly off. Sasuke's arrogant smirk grew wider, obviously very amused at her confused actions.

"Ino, what's her temperature?" he asked, wondering if she was still a bit insane.

Ino withdrew a thermometer from Sakura's armpit that she had not even noticed. "102. I think she's getting better. Can we stop feeding her that weird mush that Tenten's cooking up?" Sasuke grunted.

"Well, I'll go check on that," said Ino, pushing back her chair and sauntering down the steps, sparing a wink for Sakura before she left.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura rasped out.

"Hn."

His hand was resting on the side of the bed. Her own hand, fever-hot, fumbled around slightly and then grabbed tightly onto his. He inwardly winced as he felt a crack, but outwardly showed no reaction. Her hand was searing against his skin, she looked a lot worse than her condition really was.

To Sakura, Sasuke's hand was immensely cool. She sighed in relief and dragged it up to her forehead, placing it there. "That feels nice," she said sleepily.

He removed his hand and pushed back a few wet strands of pink hair from her forehead, and laid it there again. "Ino will get an ice pack," he said.

She shook her head slightly. "Stay."

"Hn."

He stayed.

-

"Lazy bum, you're so stupid. Why don't you just say sorry if you're so miserable about it?" said a very agitated Naruto, who was not used to not expressing what exactly he was feeling. Shikamaru, on the other hand, was the exact opposite, and was having a lot of trouble making sense of the blonde's advice.

"Ino would slap me if I even tried to talk to her," he explained.

Naruto shook his head. "She can't be scarier than Sakura-chan when she's mad."

Shikamaru paused, considered, and then decided that Naruto was right. Ino did not have Sakura's massive strength. Hinata, sitting on the other side of him, sighed very quietly, making a daisy chain, except with the overgrown weeds in the front yard. A noisy car pumping rap sped by on the street.

Two little seven-year-olds sped by, one carrying a softball and the other one two tennis rackets. They were whacking it back and forth when one of them missed and it came sailing straight at Hinata's face. Her pale eyes widened, and she squeezed them shut, expecting a blinding flash of pain at any second…

There was a muffled smacking sound as Naruto reached across Shikamaru and caught the ball centimeters from her face, throwing it back to the kids. "Oi, don't hurt Hinata-chan!" he said half indignantly and half jokingly. "I might have to kill you."

The girl of the two kids snorted, and they ran toward the backyard.

Shikamaru shook his head at the hopeless blonde. "You should give out less death threats, you know." Naruto only grinned impishly, his wide cerulean eyes bright with hidden mischief. The genius of the three shook his head again, got up and walked inside for a snack. Naruto and Hinata were left to sit under the tree.

"Hinata-chan, you wanna go for a run?" he suggested after a while.

Hinata's cheeks flamed pink for a moment, but then she nodded meekly and they raced each other to the woods. There, both fell simultaneously forward into the werewolf pelt, their fur blurring in speed almost before they hit the ground as the ferocity of the run started.

Soon, they came to a wide clearing, and, exhausted, changed back to human shape. Naruto reached for a few berries growing on a tree, and handed a few to Hinata.

"Hinata-chan, I've decided that I don't like Sakura-chan anymore," he said as he busily chewed on a berry and squirted red juice all over his face. Hinata glanced quickly at him, biting back a small giggle at seeing the purple tinting of his face as the berry juice spread.

"Y-You don't?" she answered.

He shook his head happily. "Nope. I still love her and all: but she's like my sister now. I've decided that I like somebody else."

Hinata wilted slightly. "Oh."

Naruto paused. Then he poked her five times in a row in the left arm. "Na, na, Hinata-chan! You're supposed to ask me who it is! Otherwise it's no fun."

She swallowed a large mouthful of the berries and settled a little deeper into the grass. "H-Hai…who is it?"

Naruto's grin spread wider. "I'm not going to tell you! Hehe!"

Hinata smiled slightly as he did a little victory lap around the field, happy that he had pulled off the dorky joke.

"Ne, ne, Hinata-chan? Aren't you going to laugh?"

She blushed slightly and looked down. Naruto grabbed her hand and pulled her up. "C'mon, I'll teach you how to skip stones!" he led her to a little brook, where he searched for a flat-sided, smooth black pebble. It bounced five times before skidding to a noisy halt on the opposite bank.

Hinata felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She had always been very bad at skipping stones as a child with Neji. He had always won.

Hinata threw hers, and watched it sink dismally on the first bounce.

Naruto, however, was completely unperturbed. "Don't worry! My first rock sunk AND splashed me. Tough luck," he shrugged. They plopped down by the bank and watched the water roll by.

The blonde had a sort of squinty look on his face, the one that he got when he was either confused or thinking hard. There was a slight touch of embarrassment there, too, when he finally broke the silence between them and said, "Hinata-chan, I've decided that I'm not going to tell you who I like now. For real."

Hinata smiled slightly. "A-Alright. That's o-okay."

"I changed my mind. Now I'm going to tell you."

"That's a-alright too," she murmured, watching the brook water running over the rocks and feeling a pink tinge spreading across her cheeks.

Naruto considered. "How 'bout I give you hints?"

Hinata felt a tiny giggle escape her lips. "N-Naruto-kun, I'm n-not going t-to make f-fun of you."

Naruto shook his head. "You're too nice, Hinata-chan. Sakura-chan would hit me."

Hinata tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and tried not to turn very, very red.

"Alright…she has darkish hair," said Naruto. "And she's a girl…um…"

Hinata smiled weakly. "Naruto-kun, l-lots of girls f-fit that description."

"She's sitting right next to me?" he suggested.

Hinata opened her mouth to say that that one was too obvious, and then realized that she was the only person sitting next to him. What was supposed to come out as a somewhat dignified question changed to a squeak: "N-nani?"

Naruto shrugged sheepishly. "See? You're too nice to laugh."

Hinata shook her head, her white eyes wide. "Me? N-Naruto-kun…"

Without warning, two furry ears popped out of her head and she made a small "eep" sound of embarrassment, trying without luck to try and make them shrink back into her head and stop the violent pounding of her heart against her ribcage. What was she supposed to say in this sort of conversation anyways?

Instead, Naruto roared with laughter and gave her a sprawling bear hug that bowled her over altogether and robbed her of the breath that she needed for words. "Hinata-chan, why are you so red? Such a dashing young man such as myself just gave you his declaration of love! Shouldn't you be swooning?"

Well, she felt on the verge of it.

-

"Ino?"

"Go away."

"Ino, I'm _really_ sorry, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong…"

"I _said_, GO AWAY."

Shikamaru sighed and pushed open the door to reveal Ino sitting in the middle of the aisle in the dormitory with her knees drawn up to her chest and her face pressed into them. Her blonde ponytail was coming out, and the windows were all drawn so that there were only dark, eerie shadows in the room, making her skin glow a sort of sickly grey-purple with tinges of green.

He sat down next to her. When she didn't so much as twitch, he sighed loudly. "What did I do wrong anyways, Ino? It's a free country."

She jerked her head up so abruptly that he nearly reeled backward and hit his head on a bed pole. Her blue eyes were blazing with anger, fresh tear tracks visible on her paled face and her eyelids a sort of red and puffy shade. It might have been almost comical, but instead it made her very scary-looking.

"_What did you do wrong_? My God, Shikamaru, it's a wonder that you have that high IQ of yours."

Shikamaru grimaced. "I know it's about Temari…"

Ino snorted. "That's about as far as you got, huh?"

Chirp. Chirp. Silence.

"Well, yeah."

Ino stood up, and Shikamaru had to admit that it was a good tactic to do in an argument, because it made him feel very ,very small and made Ino appear like she was the extremely angry supreme ruler of the universe. He was thinking of whimpering and crawling to hide under the bed.

"You _insensitive_, dumb, back-stabbing, twofaced _baka!_" she screeched in fury so loudly that the floorboards seemed to shake and resonate in fear. "You can't even tell that I _like _you? Nara Shikamaru, I HATE YOU NOW, alright? Are you happy?"

She stormed out, leaving him there to shiver.

-

**A/N: Sort of an eventful chapter!**


	18. Light

**A/N: Well, I'm going to try and get this chapter and maybe another in before we leave on vacation! (Lucky you!! Haha. I'm kidding: you know that, right?) GAH everybody's wanting all four-five pairings at once. It's going to drive me over the edge, (don't push me, cuz I'm close-to the edge…) but I love it.**

**And IrisEclipsed, my God, you gave me a heart attack when I saw that "122" reviews label!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. You get a box of cookies. Chocolate chip. (If you're allergic to chocolate, then I'm very sorry.)**

**Thank you to Atsune, Sagittarius Fire Goddess, (I hope I spelled that one right…), WiltedRose-x, missysillivan, corkxrew, and all of the other wonderful, PERFECT reviewers that I missed who have stayed with this fic for ever and ever. Lots of luv!**

**Also, I apologize if I missed you on that short list, (I'm horrible at skimming). Just…well, flame me relentlessly and I'll bake you cookies…xD I know that I hate it when I review a lot and then an author forgets me…**

**BTW, I HAVE read Blood and Chocolate, and agree that it is the most spifftastic werewolf chappie book in the world!! I just don't really like the ending…**

**Without further gabbling, here is THE CHAPTER!**

-

**Hallow Moon,**

**Dance Phase:**

**Light**

_-_

_In Tsugaru, in winter pure white, in spring green, in summer black,  
in autumn brocade - how vivid and splendid is the seasonal changing of kimono._

_-Tsugaru Yamauta_

_-_

Uchiha Sasuke chewed slowly on a sour gummi worm, letting the tiny little sour pieces melt onto his tongue. The sweet, chewy part he kept grinding back and forth between his right molars, trying not to have a mental breakdown.

_Her fever is rising again._

_**This should bother you because…?**_

…

_**See? No good reason. **_

_I'm tired of just sitting by her bed like this night and day._

_**Then just stop doing it.**_

_I can't._

_**Why then, hm?**_

…

_**Oh, don't tell me that the L-word is going to come into this conversation.**_

_Urusai._

Sakura turned over slightly in her sleep, tendrils of pink hair once again plastered to her face by sweat. Sasuke brushed it back for her again, feeling stupid and troubled by the inner battle of his consciences. Why _was_ he even sitting here by Sakura when he could have been training?

She wasn't in danger of dying, (or whatever it was that they did), so there was no need to worry. Not that he was worrying.

He got up and stretched. He had decided that it was time for a very long walk in the woods.

-

"Hinata-chan, are you alright?" asked Ino, watching as Hinata stumbled back and forth with her oven mitts on backwards and a goofy smile snaking its way onto her beet red features. The blonde thought that she caught a string of a 50's tune that Hinata was humming as she passed by again.

Hinata did _not_ hum 50's tunes.

"Hai, Ino-chan," said Hinata softly, placing the platter of cookies on the table. Ino raised a skeptical eyebrow, but pushed her no further, instead choosing to juggle a hot, melting cookie and drop it hastily onto a green ceramic plate that Naruto had made a year ago.

"Whatever you say," she muttered, walking out of the room.

-

Sasuke walked with his hands in his pockets, balled tensely into fists as he looked defiantly up into the cracks between the green foliage above with light shining through the cracks. The silence was too much. The noise of songbirds was too distracting. He rejoiced in his solitude. He loathed being alone. His mind was in turmoil.

There was a rustle in the underbrush behind him. Nothing seemed out of place, so he let it go, taking that it was a restless squirrel.

Again, there was another louder, more persistent rustle. This time he stopped and turned around.

Subaku no Gaara was standing there, his eyes cold with hatred and his red hair in violent disarray. He stood in the middle of a long, graceful-leaved plant, his arms folded in what normal people would call a relaxed stance, if not for the neck bones standing out and the muscle twitching slightly in his cheek from a very tightly clenched jaw.

"What do you want?" Sasuke sneered, allowing sharp canines to elongate into his mouth and probed them with his tongue. A small pinprick of blood dripped into his mouth cavern. _Excellent._

Gaara's facial expression did not move a bit. His shoulders gave sort of a tiny, nonexpressive shrug. "Prey."

Sasuke smirked and raised an ebony eyebrow. "Rabbit?"

Gaara's face, again, did not move. "Something better."

The slightest twitch in his body movement, angled to something behind him, made the Uchiha automatically turn around. His blood froze.

"S-Sasuke-kun?" said a relieved Sakura.

She stumbled slightly and leaned against a tree, panting, her face red and sweaty with fever. Her wide green eyes had no light in them, as if she had been hypnotized. She stumbled again as she attempted to walk towards them. Immediately, Sasuke appeared to have vanished with speed, only to reappear inches from her, and pulled her effortlessly into his arms, sprinting at high speed back towards the orphanage.

"Daijoubu?" she murmured sleepily. His heart was thumping hard in his ribcage. Was he scared? Uchiha Sasuke would not be afraid. He would not let himself be afraid of Subaku no Gaara. But he was not. So why was he so…on edge?

A flash of red, and then Gaara was sprinting alongside them effortlessly, for the first time with the hints of a smirk gracing his pale face, making his eyes seem fanatical and his structure lithe and inhuman, (though it was).

"Give her to me," he said simply.

Sasuke's eyes flashed crimson, and he pulled back his upper lip to reveal razor sharp teeth with relish, probing them lightly against his lip, satisfyingly feeling droplets of red blood seep out of the chapped flesh again. He allowed a sadistic grin to tinge his pale features, a cocky look that clearly said, _I'd like you to try and make me._

Gaara's expression was still wild with bloodlust, though his teeth also sharpened, along with a scrape-like sound as his nails shot out to alarming lengths.

The red-haired werewolf was gone from human vision perception a moment later, though Sasuke barely caught the movement. He was smart: he was zigzagging through the trees around them, making to go for Sakura from behind. "Too slow!" Sasuke hissed with pleasure as he effortlessly blocked the attack. Gaara merely dodged around and sliced a cut all the way across the Uchiha's back.

Sasuke slid back on the ground from the impact, though not losing his footing. Wet blood dripped down his back and soaked through his shirt, though the wound itself was already mending.

"S-Sasuke…kun…"

Sakura wavered and then fell. He sped backward and caught her again, making to run. Gaara had vanished again. He had never known this type of speed or agility before, it was agonizingly fast, as if his soul were free of his body. It was wonderful and terrible, and the only thing that was still tying him to the real world was the weight of Sakura, nestled against his chest and reflecting the loud beats of his heart.

The edge of the forest was nearing. Golden, not green, light was already filtering through. Three meters. A foot.

He skidded to an abrupt halt on the edge of a crowded, busy freeway, attracting many stares as to the unconscious girl in his arms. He ignored them all, breathing heavily through his nose and his eyes flickering to the forest edge once in a while, though he was fairly sure that Subaku no Gaara would not attack them in front of so many humans. He would bide his time.

Instead, he directed his attention back to Sakura as the orphanage came back into view. She looked alright, as the fever temperature seemed to be dwindling. She was just tipsy, that was all. He allowed a small breath of air to escape through his mouth, tasting the iron of blood. He coughed, and the red liquid splattered onto himself and Sakura.

His black eyes widened as he stumbled and dropped to his knees, hurriedly setting Sakura down before he dropped her. The world spun, and then snapped abruptly back into focus. He groaned, clutching his head, his hands pulling his hair until it ran taut.

_Poisoned claws._

-

"Oi, Forehead-girl…Sasuke-kun…" called a slightly worried Ino as she searched throughout the building for the two wolves. "It's rehearsal time!"

She was especially worried about the pink-haired of the two, as she was not even supposed to be out of bed yet. As an afterthought, she opened the front door to see if Hinata and Sakura were helping out with the gardening again. Her pale blue eyes widened at the sight of Sasuke and Sakura, both on the ground and both in rotten shape.

"TSUNADE-SAMA!!" she screamed.

-

Tsunade was not an idiot.

She did not happen to know that almost all of the teenagers in her orphanage were less than human, but she was no idiot.

Long years as the head of a rather low-on-funds orphanage had taught her caution, and also when to ask questions and when to say "I don't want to know". This situation, as it were, was an "I don't want to know" one.

She shook her head, bringing in a first aid kit to patch up Sasuke's back. "Boys these days," she muttered, shaking her head. "I'm too old for this." Nevertheless, she had successfully drawn the poison out of the wound in the next fifteen minutes, and set Sakura to rights too.

Ino sighed in relief. "Arigato, Tsunade-sama."

The older blonde just shook her head again, and clucked her tongue. "Pray see to it that those two avoid rash activities from now on. What did he do, run out into the middle of a freeway?" Ino smiled an uncomfortable smile.

"P-Perhaps."

-

"Hinata-chan!! Sasuke-teme's got his ass kicked!" Naruto shouted gleefully, practically dancing on the spot.

Hinata's eyes widened. "N-Nani?" This was accompanied by the usual blush which adorned her features whenever Naruto talked to her these days. Naruto kept dancing impatiently, motioning for the raven-haired wolf to follow him up the steps.

Hinata was trembling all over. "W-What happened t-to him?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Got into a fist fight." He squeezed her hand reassuringly when she continued to shake, realizing that it was ice cold. "C'mon, Hinata-chan…it takes a lot more to finish Sasuke. The stupid teme just won't die," he chuckled, making sure that Hinata knew he was joking.

He led her into the room, where Ino, Sakura and Shikamaru were already seated. Sakura was sitting in a chair with the rest of them, looking considerably better except for appearing slightly tired, but it was Sasuke that was lying in bed. He looked relatively alright, except for the bandages all across his bare torso, designed so that they would not untie. The back was soaked in blood.

His eyes, however, were wide open and quite alert. "Oi, baka," he said carelessly to Naruto. Naruto bristled, but otherwise just treated it like many of the other casual arguments that the two friends had.

"Eh, where's Neji and Tenten?" asked Naruto.

Ino smiled wickedly. "Probably in a broom closet," she decided. Sakura elbowed her, though a slight wispy grin was also on her pale face.

Naruto shrugged and sat down, pulling Hinata with him. "What are they doing, cleaning?"

Ino and Sakura sweatdropped.

-

Tenten and Neji, it turns out, _were_ in a broom closet.

"Neji-kun, could you hand me that duster?" Tenten yelled, fumbling around in the huge storage room for a bottle of Tide or some other cleaning detergent. There was a vague grunt from the other side, and a duster was thrust into her face. She took it and struggled out of the piles and oodles of stuff, and back into the lighted hallway.

"You just _had_ to spill the pudding I made, huh?" she sighed, walking towards the kitchen. Neji climbed out of the closet too, unwilling to admit that he had actually spilled it on purpose, (Tenten's cooking was not safe for anybody to taste).

"It was for Sakura, you idiot, and now I need to make something else for her," Tenten chided as she mopped up the sticky mess on the floor. She was halfway through when Neji caught her hand with the washrag tightly, took the washrag with the other, and started doing the cleaning himself.

Tenten's eyes widened in surprise. "Neji-kun! You're doing household work! This is a major improvement!"

"Hn."

-

**A/N: Please review!!**


	19. Celebrate

**A/N: I think that I know where I'm going to end this fic, and that's going to be a few chapters away, though not TOO near. I love this fiction too much to end it that fast…**

**If anybody has ever seen THE ENTRAPMENT, that's basically the type of relationship I would like Gaara and Matsuri to have, though Matsuri is much more timid than Gin.**

**Anyways, thank you for all reviews again (bows and cheers), and I hope that I am doing my humble job as a writer correctly.**

**This chapter should be more humorous!**

**-**

**Hallow Moon,**

**Snow Phase:**

**Celebrate**

-

"_You are never, ever allowed to hurt yourself!"_

_-Bella, TWILIGHT_

_-_

"It's almost Christmastime, you know," Ino said.

Tenten nodded wisely over her hot cocoa as mist clouded the back window once more. "Too bad that there's no snow out here," she said wistfully, watching the white eddies in the drink swirl and make a pattern of a flower.

Hinata sipped some of her mint tea silently and without comment, swishing it between her teeth and warming her hands against the hot white ceramic of the mug she was using, which depicted a melting snowman stained with blood and several arrows sticking out of him, (it had been Sasuke's art project).

Sakura smiled dreamily, though that might have just been an aftermath of the fever. She absently doodled on her forearm with a pale green magic marker, a Celtic curling design being born under the inking tip. "It's nearing the end of Hallow Moon already, is it?" she murmured softly.

Ino nodded excitedly, a wild glint available in her shining blue eyes. "December the 25th is only three days away on the human calendar." She motioned to a battered calendar tacked to the wooden walls of the kitchen. The 24th and 25th were circled, but no comments on events were penciled down.

Tenten sighed. "It's going to be another boring Christmas, isn't it?"

Ino shrugged. "We'll see about that."

The pink-haired wolf of the four smiled slightly. "I have to say that I like Halloween better than Christmas. You get to be somebody that you're not, which I think is a relief: on Halloween, they don't care what kind of form you take: you're just another kid out there who wants candy and to be able to give a scare."

Hinata's pale eyes crinkled in understanding. "H-Hai, but Christmas c-can be fun t-too."

Ino smirked at the timid girl, who's eyes widened as she realized that she must have said something wrong. "You gonna rig the dorm with mistletoe and kidnap Naruto?" Ino suggested.

A small "eep" escaped Hinata as the other two roared with laughter.

"We have got to start practicing more seriously for the end-of-year performance too," Ino reprimanded them. "Since the orphanage doesn't have a summer break, 'end-of-year' probably means December the 31st."

Sakura shook her head in argument. "Or it could mean February. Traditionally, that's the technical end of the orphanage school year."

Tenten shrugged. "Whenever it is, we're not going to be ready. Neji-kun, Hinata, and the Uchiha are some good, I admit, but the rest of us suck."

"Give it a rest," Sakura sighed. "It's about to be Christmas, remember?"

"Which means," said Ino, the wicked grin back in place, "that we have some preparations to do."

-

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sakura poked her head around the corner of the doorframe of their dorm. Nobody was in the room, except for Matsuri, who was lying back on her bed and reading a chapter book. She glanced up nervously at Sakura, but quickly went back to her book. Sakura closed the door quietly, wondering where in the world Sasuke could have gotten to.

"Hn…looking for me?" said a deep voice in her ear, the cool breath tickling her neck.

Sakura jumped and turned around. "Sasuke-kun! Don't do that!"

Sasuke's smirk was unconditionally amused, his eyes betraying flickers of humor. "Scared?" Sakura scowled, and chose to ignore him. Instead, she beckoned to another room close by. He followed her in, and she closed the door, taking a deep breath.

"I don't know _what_ happened in the forest while I was sick," she began, "but I know that it had to do with you and me, and most likely some kind of mortal threat. Am I right?" Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow, but did not object. Sakura took another deep breath. "OK, I'm right. Sasuke-kun…you have got to stop saving my life."

Sasuke expelled a blast of air from his nostrils. "You are weak. It is my obligation to protect you from being killed. It seems that your scent is compelling to other werewolves other than myself."

Sakura flared up at the insult. "You think I'm _weak_? Sasuke-kun, I'm not the lovesick little twelve-year-old girl that I used to be!" she shrieked, her voice rising an octave in pitch. "I'm just as strong as any of you! I can take care of myself, alright?"

Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes wild and desperate and filled with angry tears. He eyed her coldly. She glared at him and turned to throw open the door, but there was a flash of color, and then he was blocking it.

"You can not stand up against an opponent such as Subaku no Gaara," he said matter-of-factly. Sakura opened her mouth to retort, and then closed it. They both knew that what he was saying was true.

She felt herself tremble, and hurriedly steadied herself. "Was that…was that injury on your back from him, then?"

Sasuke looked away, feeling his pride being burnt. "Hn."

Silent tears trickled down Sakura's face. She angrily wiped them away. "Do you _see_ what I mean now?" she asked insistently. "You keep getting hurt because of me! I'm tired of it!"

Sasuke casually put his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts. "You would be dead if you tried to stand up to Subaku no Gaara because of me. Do you believe that I would truly have died in a fair battle with him?"

Sakura shook her head violently. "Stop it! That's not the point!"

Sasuke continued to stare at her coldly. "Sakura, he would kill you, but I am more than an opponent for him. You are defenseless; it is my job to protect you as the one that understands you the most."

Sakura snorted. "As if you've ever tried to understand me, Sasuke-kun. You think I'm an annoyance, remember?"

There was another flash of color, and then Sasuke had Sakura pinned effortlessly to the wall. "On the contrary," he said softly into her ear, "I consider you to be a gift. Perhaps my punishment from some sort of dark Hell, but also a gift." He let his forehead press against the door.

Sakura closed her eyes, feeling Sasuke's hands still tightly gripping her shoulders. It was painful as Hell, but at the same time oddly comforting. He released her a few seconds later, and she slid to the floor. "Gomen," he said, sounding oddly choked, his eyes whirling between red and black.

He left, and she sat there rocking back and forth, wishing that the tears would just stop.

-

"Ino, I'm sorry."

Ino smiled slightly, trying to hide it as she continued to sketch geometry patterns into her math notebook. "Excuse me, what was that again?" she said, cupping her ear and leaning towards him.

Shikamaru sighed and rolled his eyes. "I'm _sorry_ for hurting your feelings. Ai, women are so troublesome."

Ino chuckled, feeling elated. "Friends?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "Hai, hai, we're still friends."

Ino nudged him suggestively in the ribs. "Something more?"

He bolted.

Ino laughed, and continued to sketch. Shikamaru was probably the only guy in the world who would not know that she had meant the last thing as a joke.

-

"Neji-kun, where do we keep the Christmas decorations?" asked a very frustrated Tenten, while she flipped through countless ripping cardboard storage boxes in the attic. There were a pair of pinking shears, and also a roll of duct tape, next to her that she had been using as her opening/reclosing tools for the past four hours.

Neji, who had just come up the steps looking for Tenten to train with him, made to just turn straight back around again, but Tenten steered him towards a chair and sat him down forcefully.

"I need ornaments and mistletoe and the mini Christmas trees and maybe some old suits for you and those other guys…" she rattled on and on, checking things off on her fingers and occasionally adding things that she thought might be nice for the occasion. Neji just sat there, trying to understand what she was saying and failing.

At last, he stood up, picked up the duct tape, and ripped off a nice big piece. Tenten glanced over at the noise. "Eh? Neji-kun, what are you doing?"

Neji advanced grimly. "Nothing painful." Then he clamped the piece of tape over her mouth, slung her over his shoulders like a Santa sack, and sat _her_ down in the chair. Tenten's brown eyes were furious, as she attempted to scream at him even as he tied her to the chair with colorful Christmas lights.

"MMHPhoougghhBAHMph!" she yelled through the tape.

(_Translation: That might not have hurt, but what about when you try to rip it off?)_

"I am not going to take it off," Neji replied calmly, holding her thrashing right foot to the chair leg and wrapping it in a segment of blue light bulbs.

Tenten's eyes widened as he stood up, dusted his hands, and headed toward the first step.

"BIGHOOhonkBEEPMMphoo!"

(_Translation: HYUUGA NEJI, YOU WOULDN'T DARE!_)

Neji turned around. "I believe that this will be for your own good. I will come and bring you dinner in an hour, and then I will release you. You may peel the tape off yourself."

"NUNKPHOO!!"

(_Translation: CONTENT NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN.)_

-

"Hinata-chan, look what I can do!" crowed Naruto, effortlessly sticking out a long pink tongue and poking his nose with it, hopping about excitedly. "I can turn my tongue into a wolf one and do tricks!" He now rolled it into a tube.

Ino, who was also watching, rolled her eyes, closing up her math notebook and instead flipping on the TV, feeling like today was a day to just flop back and relax. Let Tenten search for all of the Christmas ornaments, but Ino was pooped.

"Naruto, a lot of people can do those things without being a mutation."

"But Ino…if you call me a mutation, then that makes you one too since we're both wolves," he complained, sitting down in between the two girls on the couch.

Ino shook her head. "Nah. You're in a category all on your own, kiddo."

She flipped the channel again and settled for a fashion channel on European haute couture. Tall, lithe females with bright eyes, long, curling locks and prominent collar bones stalked down an elaborate aisle, sporting millionaire wedding dresses most likely adorned with diamonds.

Ino sighed wistfully, her chin in her hand. "Wish I had a dress like that."

"You're getting married?" said Naruto jubilantly. "Does that mean you're moving out?"

SLAP.

"ITTAAAEEEE!"

"Well, if it hurt, then don't say those types of things," Ino said haughtily. "It's not even legal for me to marry somebody at this age. And everybody knows that a guy has to propose to you first. Haven't had that happen yet, in case you didn't notice."

"But you're over forty," Naruto reasoned.

"Technically," Ino reminded him. "No wrinkles yet."

She pointed at her fifteen-year-old face. Hinata smiled slightly. "I'm g-going to go and t-take the Christmas c-cookies out of the o-oven," she said quietly, straightening out of the huge, fluffy couch and shuffling shyly into the kitchen. "She'll need a taste-tester," Naruto decided, and got up to follow her.

"Well, somebody's got to hide all of the cookies from him, and Hinata's not going to do it," sighed Ino, leaving the TV on and going to follow after them.

"SUCCESS! IT IS LAST NIGHT'S GEOMETRY HOMEWORK!" yelled a triumphant Lee, who leaped out from behind the couch and snatched Ino's workbook.

It was going to be an interesting Christmas.

-

**A/N: Alright, so there WAS humor. But there was also some fluffy angst. Well, at least that's about as angsty as it gets for me. I love to read it but when it comes to writing it, I suck.**


	20. Mistletoe

**A/N: OK, my words of remorse to you:**

**I know that I haven't been updating in ever, but I did forewarn you that I was going on vacation. I only have internet access once or twice a week, and I have to type the chapters without reference to former writing and then post them when I have connection to the world. I apologize…**

**I'm also sorry if I'm irritating anyone by typing about Christmas and snow and hot chocolate in the middle of the summertime. That is, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, anyways. I find it comforting to think of something that's cold when the humidity is about to drive you loco, lol.**

**Upcoming fluff! Yay for fluff!**

**-**

**Hallow Moon,**

**Snow Phase:**

**Mistletoe**

**-**

_War determines not who is right, but who is left._

-

"You know what? I've officially decided that boys are immature and complete savages," Tenten muttered, twisting her wrists in a vain attempt to restore circulation. The area around her mouth was raw and sticky from the duct tape. At least it wasn't burning as much as it had been when she had first allowed Ino to rip it off.

At this moment, the blonde was lounging crookedly on an attic chair, with a tormented expression that clearly suggested that she was trying very hard not to burst out laughing at her friend. Tenten scowled at her slightly, now twisting her ankles.

"Weren't you able to fight him off?" Ino asked her, recalling Tenten's considerable skill in the area of martial arts.

Tenten shrugged. "Ah, well…" She shook her head and didn't finish her sentence. "Anyways, I'll get the last laugh," she said diabolically.

Ino sighed.

"Why does everybody around here seem to think that violence solves everything?"

-

"So you're sure that you're alright?" Naruto inquired again, sounding doubtful.

Sakura forced a smile at him, though she was sure that it looked extremely fake. "Hai, I'm sure, Naruto." She bent and continued sorting through the huge box of Christmas junk that Ino and Tenten had dropped off. Naruto frowned quizzically at her, and then shrugged, jamming his hands elbow-deep into a mess of sparkling ornaments.

In fact, Sakura was alright. She hadn't felt this "alright" for a long time. She had always known that she was an annoyance to Sasuke, because of the strong calling of her flesh to him. He had proved her theory right many times in the past years, but it had never deterred her in the fact that she loved him unconditionally.

Now, he had informed her that she might not be as annoying to him as she seemed to think.

_He had called her a gift._

Elated beyond belief, she had spent the next hour idly looking up all possible meanings of the word on the internet, humming tunelessly. It no longer mattered so much when he ignored her when she made attempts at conversation. He didn't hate her. That was enough to cling on to.

She stood up from the sofa that she and Naruto were sitting on, hearing a protesting creak as she did, and told the confused blonde that she was going to take a break and go out for some fresh air.

Outside, the traffic was alright. It was an ominous looking sky; dark storm clouds hovered over a blue-gray sky with ash-colored wisps spiraling across it. She jammed her hands into her pockets and strolled. _Walk across the street, not down it._

The words of wisdom randomly popped into her head, and she did cross the street, ending up at an empty bus stop, and then continuing toward a promising patch of forest. The first trees were a relief to be under.

She sighed, tucking a strand of pink hair behind her ear.

Three things happened then, almost too fast for Sakura to comprehend. The first was that the trees rustled with a sharp wind. The second was that there was a blur of color in front of her eyes, and then she sensed somebody behind her. The third was that an overwhelming sense of calm enveloped her body. She smiled.

"Sasuke-kun."

She remembered him going out on a walk earlier. She turned a slight bit. The contours of his left cheek filled her peripheral vision. "Why are you here?" he breathed in her ear, his voice sounding strained. She peeked at his eyes. Red.

"I…wanted to take a walk," she told him, confused. "I thought it was a free country, the last time I checked," she added on.

He exhaled, a dark grimace shadowing his features. "You shouldn't wander alone, especially here." He leaned back, so that his face was no longer next to hers. She felt a strange sense of disappointment, feeling the cold wind again against her right cheek.

"Gaara's not going to eat me, if that's what you're talking about. I'm not nearly as helpless as you seem to think," she snapped, feeling slightly annoyed. There was a pause, another flash of color, and then Sasuke was standing easily in front of her, his eyes still a brilliant red, though his features were relaxed.

"Subaku no Gaara is the least of your worries," he said flatly.

She opened her mouth automatically to retort, then closed it in confusion. "Nani?"

"I can easily kill you right now," he said, his voice slurred. "Nobody would suspect me. I am careful with my thoughts, so they could not take it from my mind. Subaku no Gaara would take the blame, and they would never find your body."

Sakura trembled slightly. "Sasuke-kun…"

"What?" he snarled. "I am a monster, and you follow me around like a blind sheep! Sakura…" He took a deep breath, his angry features sharp and angular, and didn't finish the sentence. She didn't move a step, refusing to leave, her green eyes staring defiantly back at him.

"You think that I don't realize that?" she murmured. "I don't care if you kill me. I'm not going to leave you."

Another flash of color. He was behind her again. "I wish you would stop doing that," she complained playfully, trying to lighten the mood. "It's starting to annoy _me_." He chuckled darkly.

"Hn. You would die just to be with me?"

She paused, not answering, and then said, "Did you mean what you said? That…I was a gift?"

There was a pause, and then his hand reached over and pushed her hair back from her face gently, tucking it back behind her ear.

Sakura's heart pounded loudly in her ribcage, threatening to leap right out. She breathed deeply and let a sigh escape her lips. She hesitated slightly, and then folded both her hands around his larger one which lingered by her earlobe, placing a kiss onto his fingertips.

"I don't talk just to hear the sound of my own voice," he said, his voice husky.

She leaned back slightly, until his chin was resting easily on top of her hair. "Arigato," she said softly. He withdrew his hand from her grasp and covered her eyes with it. She smiled slightly.

"You want to play peek-a-boo? I never would have took you for the type."

Even without seeing him, she could sense the smirk etched into his face. He took his face from her hair and pressed his nose to her jawline, inhaling deeply. A sudden wave of euphoria coursed through her frame, and she shivered slightly against the burning hot skin of his cheek.

And suddenly, the rain from the thunderclouds started to pour down, soaking both of them through in a matter of minutes, their shirts sticking to their bodies and hair plastering to their dripping faces. Sakura laughed, twisting easily out of Sasuke's embrace to face him. His face was in a faintly smiling expression, his eyes a dull maroon and the rain trickling streams down his porcelain face. _He's so beautiful._

She cupped his face in her hands and wiped away the rain, mouthing his name. She was faintly aware that she was cold: her shirt was heavy with water and sticking to every curve of her body. Maybe she should have been embarrassed, she realized. She wasn't.

They stood perfectly still like that for a long time, letting the rain wash away all of their bitter memories.

-

"Hmm, have you seen Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked Ino, who was sitting at the kitchen table and painting wooden ornaments for this year to hang in their dorm. She winced as her green brush went off the mark, and the Christmas tree sprouted a green trunk.

"Naruto…" she said in a dangerous voice.

He chuckled nervously. "Heh…heh…."

He fled the room with Ino holding a bat, whacking every inch of him that she could reach. Tenten watched them go by, looking up from her book, and shrugged. She went back to reading, allowing a grin to flit across her face at Neji, who was polishing her toenails.

"You missed a spot," she chided him evilly. He glared at her.

"See? This is why you don't tie me up in the attic," she explained to him. He didn't respond, only continued to buff her pinky nail. She smiled, feeling in a more generous mood now that she had him at her mercy. She could do whatever she wanted to him on whim, after she had given him a few good karate chops.

"Alright, you can stop, Neji-kun," she told him. He threw away the rag he was using in relief, though it didn't show on his face, and attempted to flee from the room after Naruto.

"Uh-uh!" she said cheerfully, pulling him back easily and sitting him on the couch. "I have just one more favor to ask of you." Neji scowled, though inwardly he was panicking in alarm. Something worse than buffing toenails?

"You need to go and beat up Temari for me."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Temari."

"Hai, Temari. Ino hates her guts." She went back to her novel, offering no further explanation. Neji grunted.

"Why Temari?"

"Well, while you're currently my slave, I figured that I would do Ino a favor. I don't really like her either, what with that snobby manner and all, so I figured that you could just…well, kill her for me."

He shook his head slowly. "I cannot harm one of the other Pack for no valid reason."

"On the contrary, there is a reason."

He waited.

"Ino hates her guts," Tenten prodded. "I just told you that."

Neji sighed. "Tenten, that is not a valid reason. If you do not like her, deal with her yourself." There was a pause, and then Tenten stood up, placing her book carefully on the small table next to the couch. Neji looked up at her in slight surprise.

"Where are you going?"

"To deal with her myself, as you just so brilliantly suggested," she said as if it were painfully obvious.

Again, inner alarm coursed through Neji, though his face didn't show it. What he wanted to say was, "ARE YOU CRAZY, WOMAN?" What came out was: "That was a rhetorical suggestion," he said.

She shrugged. "Ah, well. That's alright."

"Tenten! I forbid you to fight Temari," he said sharply. She turned around and waved her arm airily at him, as if to say "ja ne!" and completely ignore his orders.

He got up and followed her, surprised at how fast a pace she was setting. "This is reckless and completely unnecessary," he told her. She grinned at him, but otherwise ignored the statement.

"It is dangerous," he warned her. "You will be hurt."

She raised an eyebrow. "Neji-kun, I thought you had more faith in me than that. Temari is perfectly beatable. Besides, I never thought you would be one to worry about somebody's safety, much less mine. You've seen me fight."

He paused. All of this was true. "I still do not want you to fight her," he said.

"Why?"

He thought about this. "Hn."

She smiled. "Neji-kun, I can take care of myself. You don't need to worry." Neji continued to follow her up the steps, however, toward their dormitory. She sighed slightly in exasperation. Hyuuga Neji was a very hard person to persuade and even harder to deter. He was the most stubborn man she had ever met, with the exception of the Uchiha.

He stopped her at the top of the steps by grabbing her arm. "Tenten, I do not want you to hurt yourself."

"I won't," she said, confused. "I just explained that to you."

"Nevertheless, I do not think this is a wise choice," he said slowly. "It is Christmastime. If you wish to…'kill' Temari, then I believe it would be better to wait." She opened her mouth in surprise.

"Wow! You remembered that it was Christmas tomorrow!" He raised an eyebrow at her once again. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"Is that so surprising?"

"Well, yes," she admitted sheepishly, and to his relief, turning around and starting down the steps again. (She would never tell Neji, but she had no real intention of beating up Temari. It was just priceless to see his expression. Bluffing was her expertise).

He followed her back to the living room, where she picked up her book again as if nothing had happened.

"Everybody here is helping with decorations. It is impossible to forget. I was with you in the attic yesterday."

Tenten glanced out of the window behind her head. "Hmm. It's raining. Sakura's going to be soaked through, wherever she went. Come to think of it, the Uchiha hasn't come back either, has he?" she mused to herself.

Neji shook his head slightly.

Her brown eyes widened, and then she laughed in delight, slapping herself in the forehead. "Oh, this is going to be good!" she shrieked loudly. Neji winced slightly.

"What is it?"

"Sakura and the Uchiha! They're both out, and I'll bet my life that they're together right now! They've hooked up, and I never even realized it. It's painfully obvious now!!" She whooped. "I'm never going to let him live it down!"

She danced towards the kitchen. Neji sighed and put his head into his hands.

_She is hopeless._

-

Hinata quietly hung up the last strand of mistletoe over the fireplace, leaving out a bright red plate full of chocolate chip cookies for Santa Claus and a glass of milk. The tree was already up, and everybody else was in bed.

She closed her eyes and knelt in front of the fireplace, clasping her hands, and prayed.

_Please, I don't need any gifts this Christmas. There is only one thing that I want, and I don't think that I will get it. If you can hear me...just know that you don't have to make the elves give me anything this year._

The lights winked out. Outside, a single snowflake landed on the ground—the first in a decade.

**A/N: Please review!**


	21. Gift

**A/N: YAY! FREE INTERNET ACCESS AT LAST!! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter…**

**-**

**Hallow Moon,**

**Snow Phase:**

**Gift**

**-**

_My chances are a snowball's in Hell._

-

Sunlight dappled her face. It poured in through the windows, though it was too early for the sun to be out. Instead, it was a dense, closely-fitted type of gray-blue color: like fog, but not moisture. Early morning.

She twisted slightly, letting the pale echo of sunlight touch the other side of her head. It felt nice. Warm. Sunkissed. That word was so nice.

She felt like she should be remembering something important: the adrenaline rush in her stomach as soon as she began to feel conscious enough to think was enough of a reminder that something big was supposed to be happening today. Her eyes shot open and her feet automatically swung themselves over the side of the bed.

_Christmas._

Haruno Sakura wasted no time in shaking awake her friends. The boys were already up, as their beds were all vacated. The other Pack were all missing as well, though everybody doubted that they were excitedly ripping up wrapping paper. Probably hunting while the weather stayed calm.

The sad Christmas tree had seen better days, but the ton of little brightly wrapped boxes under it couldn't have been more promising. They wasted no time in digging through it to find their own.

Naruto, Shikamaru, Sakura, Tenten, and Ino sat in a loose circle on the floor, hyperactive and bright-eyed, greedily shredding paper and exclaiming over gifts. Hinata, too shy to participate, had gathered her gifts in the corner and was carefully peeling the tape off of the corners of every box. Neji and Sasuke were both stubbornly standing, arms crossed, watching with impassive faces. Holiday cheer was hardly in their department.

"Sasuke-kun, here's one for you," Sakura said, handing a package wrapped in blue to him. He took it wordlessly, not missing the smirk on Tenten's face when his fingers brushed Sakura's. He narrowed his eyes slightly. She was planning something.

He wasn't planning on opening the box, but everybody was now staring baldly at him. Uchiha Sasuke was not one to be embarrassed easily, but neither did he like staring. He opened the box.

His eyes widened slightly at what was inside. There was a chill that went down his spine, and an odd churning sensation in his stomach. His fingers did not shake, but he would have thought that they would have been trembling. A thousand images were running pell-mell through his head, ones that he had fought to suppress for decades. He lifted out the object.

It was a chain, with the Uchiha crest dangling off the end, skillfully carved of wood. It had belonged to his mother.

"How…?" he choked.

Sakura smiled slightly. "Magicians never tell their secrets, though I'm hardly one. Merry Christmas."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, clearly indicating that his ingenious mind had already figured out how Sakura had managed to track down the object, but she shot him a warning glance, and he grudgingly kept his mouth shut. "Mendokusai," he muttered rebelliously. Ino patted his shoulder.

"Shika, you have got to learn to tolerate women better. Just because we're much smarter than men doesn't mean that you need to be jealous." She flipped back her blonde hair, not yet up in its ponytail. "After all, I am _stunningly _gorgeous…" she added.

He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms stubbornly. Everybody laughed.

Hinata suddenly took a step forward. "Ah! The buns! They're b-burning!" she realized, dashing to the kitchen. Ino raised her eyebrow at her friend's retreating back.

"Is it just me, or did that sound really weird?"

"It's not just you," said Tenten, shaking her head.

"Hn," said Neji and Sasuke together, and then glared at each other for stealing mottos. Tenten's smirk, ever-present, grew even more pronounced.

"OHAYO, MINA-SAN!" The Green Beast dashed into the room, his eyes shining so brightly that he might have been drinking. The Bowlcut of Truth gleamed. He was clutching a new green jumpsuit in his arms.

Tenten sighed at the tears that were threatening to spill out of Lee's eyes. "You're welcome," she said flatly.

Too late. Lee had glomped her in a huge bear hug. "TENTEN-SAN, MY FLOWER OF YOUTH, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS NEW JUMPSUIT OF LOVE! Now I shall parade before Gai-sensei!" He dashed off.

Tenten stared out murderously from beneath her tousled brown hair. "Don't. Ask."

Neji, despite still managing to maintain his cool mask, was looking quite murderous himself. "Tenten, is this what you have been doing with the sewing machine?" he asked, his tone deadly serious. Tenten grinned back sheepishly and shrugged.

"Sorry."

Hinata came back in at that moment, and Naruto jumped up immediately at the smell coming off of the tray in her hands. "AH! THE BURNING BUNS!" he yelled triumphantly, picking up a chocolate roll and juggling it in his hands, blowing at his burns.

Hinata giggled slightly and set down the tray. "B-Breakfast is s-served."

-

"Oi, Gaara. I think you should see this," yelled a flippant Temari, standing on the dangerously high edge of a precipice and looking down at a dense forest of pine. As she spoke, a piece crumbled and broke off. She didn't even flinch, just shifted her foot slightly out of the way.

Her redheaded brother barely responded to her call; he looked up automatically at the sound of his name, his eyes cold, and said, "What is it?"

His sister smirked. "Come and see for yourself."

Gaara sauntered over, and looked down. It was a wolf, a real one—storm gray and startlingly big. Alpha dog. As Gaara approached, he pulled back his black lips and snarled loudly, foam dripping from his canines and a wild glint in his amber eyes.

"A rabid wolf. Nothing of interest," Gaara said flatly.

Temari shrugged. "Just thought he might make a nice pet."

This was their idea of Christmas morning: make a long, several mile run up into the mountains, hunt out wolves, possibly torture them a little.

Kankurou had sat down on a large rock in the middle of the cliff, his arms crossed and his legs folded, his painted face in a scowl. The fabric of his hood rippled violently in the strong wind, his pants billowing out. "This is boring," he complained.

Matsuri, her small, pale face timid, appeared over the edge of a hill, panting. "N-Nothing interesting down t-there," she chattered, her hands shivering. Wordlessly, Gaara tossed her his cloak. She caught it deftly, managing to chatter out, "A-Arigato."

Temari smirked. "Getting soft, are you?" she said just loud enough for Gaara's ears. He made no movement other than to look at her over his shoulder, his green eyes like chips of ice.

"You will treat me with more respect, Temari."

"Yade yade, touchy today, are you?" she snorted, though she did back away from him slightly, recognizing danger when it was right under her nose.

Gaara made no reply.

-

"Shika, is this really necessary?" Ino complained as the Pack trooped to the rehearsal room. "It's _Christmas._"

Shikamaru grunted. "You're the one that entered us in that stupid performance. As I look at it, this is all your fault. Not surprising—you're a woman."

Ino glared defiantly at the back of his head and the bristles of his brown ponytail as he sarcastically held open the door for her and bowed. The rest of the wolves trooped in after them.

"So…why the sudden urge to practice?" Tenten asked casually as she strapped on her bass backwards. Sasuke smirked and righted it for her. She glared at him.

Shikamaru shrugged as he set up the drums. "Procrastination, I have learned, helps nobody. Seeing as the performance just keeps drawing nearer and nearer, I figure that we at least need to start writing a song."

Naruto pouted as he got out the drumsticks. "But that's in _February_," he complained loudly. "We've still got forever!"

Shikamaru shrugged again. "I don't agree. It's already been months since we signed up and we've barely done anything."

"Hinata-chan, how 'bout you sing something," Naruto suggested happily. Hinata's face turned beet red in the space of an eyeblink.

"I-Iie!! I c-can't sing!"

"Yes you can," Ino chided, rolling her eyes. "I've never heard better in my life."

Hinata shook her head violently. Naruto frowned slightly. "Waa, Hinata-chan! We all want to hear you sing! Pleaaaase?" he pouted. Hinata wavered slightly.

"I d-don't have anything t-to sing," she argued softly. Sakura thought for a second, trying not to bend under the weight of her guitar.

"Sing something that we've never heard before."

Hinata paused, and took a deep, shuddering breath.

_In the nights were there is no moon, no moon,_

_The silent hunter prowls, he prowls,_

_The starless sky reaches out a hand, a hand,_

_And the hunter, he howls._

Silence. Then Ino smiled widely and hugged Hinata, knocking over the keyboard set in the process and landing it on Shikamaru's right foot. "Sugoi, Hinata-chan!" Naruto whooped. "We're going to be great…if Sakura-chan can play guitar and Tenten-chan can play bass and the teme behaves and-"

"That's enough," Ino muttered.

-

"Alright, so you're forgiven," Ino sighed.

Shikamaru sagged into the sofa in relief. "I am?"

Ino paused. "Well, until I change my mind, yes."

They were relaxing after a fruitless rehearsal, not paying attention at all to the chatter emitting from the breaking TV set.

Shikamaru tensed again, peering at her cautiously out of the corner of his eye. "Ino, Temari is actually not that bad of a person. She's the only woman I've ever met that isn't troublesome. Can't you just lay off?"

Ino glared at him. "Alright then."

Shikamaru smiled. "It's settled."

Ino smirked. "Iie, I meant 'Alright then', I'll have to murder her." Shikamaru's eyes widened minimally, though his usual lazy expression was still fixed under the skin. He balled his hands into fists.

"Ino!"

She laughed, though the sound was off. "Shika, you've been one of my best friends for most of this life. Don't you have any consideration at all for my feelings?" He glared at her.

"Don't you have any consideration for mine? I want to be with Temari! Can't you just live with that?"

"I can't!" Ino screamed at him, wishing that volume could make the message get through better. His skull seemed to be too thick to comprehend what she had been trying to tell him all along. "Don't you see? I just can't! Shika, I love you and you hate me. Do you see the problem here?" Her voice rose another octave.

His face was shocked and hurt. "Ino, I don't hate you."

"It seems like it!" she said, horrified that her voice had broken in the middle of the sentence and her tear ducts had started working. She ran from the room.

-

"Sasuke-kun…"

Sakura paused and didn't finish her sentence. Her fingers traced his hand absently. He was staring out of the window, his obsidian eyes unreadable, his left hand clutching the Uchiha crest charm.

Abruptly, he caught her hand and stopped her tracing, folding her fingers into his larger hand. She blushed lightly, though Sasuke didn't seem to notice. He released her hand and shook his head, standing up.

"Stop."

She looked at him curiously. "Stop…what?"

He looked at her darkly. "I don't know. That's the problem." He scrutinized her features more closely, his hands jammed into his pockets and his face hard.

"What is it that you do to me?" he muttered, mostly to himself.

Sakura looked up at him with wide eyes. "What are you talking about?"

He shook his head again, closing his eyes this time. They shot open again suddenly a second later, a deep maroon. Sakura paused, and then said, "I could leave if you like. I know that you don't like being alone with me."

"Hn," he grunted. She stood up.

In less time than it took to blink, his hand was clutching her shoulder so tightly that she felt a slight crack. Sakura winced. His breathing was shallow.

"Don't."

She bit her lip. "Alright." He released her.

She turned around, and he had squeezed his eyes shut tightly again, his hands balled into fists so tense that the veins in his arms stood out, blue against his paler skin. His expression was frightening, twisted into a mask of somewhere between agony and self-hatred. She touched his shoulder lightly in concern, asking the silent question. His eyes opened.

"Hn." She nodded. He would be alright.

He took a hesitant step towards her, and brushed the hair away from her cheek lightly. "Arigato," he said. She smiled.

"For what?"

His dark eyes stared at her intensely, serious to the core. "For staying." He took a deep breath, his face twisting for a second. "You…" He didn't finish the sentence, scrutinizing her features again. Her cheeks warmed under his stares.

"You are…" he struggled with words again, and failed. "Sakura, you are different than other people."

She smiled slightly at him. "Thanks. I'll take that as a compliment."

**A/N: Fluffiness!!**


	22. Journey

**A/N: I'm going home soon, so I'll be able to post this chapter and the last one…once you're reading this it'll sound really weird, lol. I hope you enjoy! This one has a few scenes that have been stuck in my head for a while.**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Gray Phase:**

**Journey**

**-**

_Whatever can go wrong will go wrong._

_-Murphy's Law_

-

"Crap, we're out of eggs," Ino muttered savagely, banging her fist onto the tabletop.

Her mood had not improved in the past day. Tenten winced as the spoons and pans sitting on the counter trembled from Ino's blow. "We're out of milk, and bread, too," Ino continued to complain, running her fingers through her hair and grinding her teeth slightly in agitation. She sank into a wooden-backed chair, which creaked under her weight, and blew a great gust of air up into her hair. She covered her face with her hands.

"Tenten, tell me honestly—am I being a brat, or is it just me?" She paused. "Wait, never mind. The two choices are basically the same. Just tell me if I'm acting like a jerk."

The Weapons Mistress rolled her eyes, leaning back casually against the marble countertop, and crossed her ankles lightly. Ino could be such a moody person, but she, unlike many others of the sort, actually knew that she was causing other people to hate her. The truth was, she was being pretty annoying. What Tenten did say was, "Iie, it's alright." She had to give Ino some credit for at least trying to be nice.

Ino shook her head in disbelief, but didn't argue the point. "Shikamaru is a jerk," she said instead into her hands.

Tenten chuckled darkly. "I thought you might get to that part sooner or later. Once you drown in self-pity, you're going to try and take somebody else with you." Ino's blue eyes were slightly angry when she looked up at her friend.

"I'm not pitying myself," she argued defiantly, sitting up a little straighter as if to prove her point.

Tenten smiled kindly at her in response. "It's OK to be sad, you know. You don't always have to be Mighty Ino and be center of the universe. You don't have to be all strong."

Ino's expression seemed to crumble. "This whole thing is so stupid," she said, her voice breaking slightly. "He's my best friend, Tenten, in the whole world! Even Sakura…" she trailed off slightly. "Sorry. That was mean. I love you all equally is what I'm supposed to say. It's just…he means a lot to me, you know?"

Tenten walked over and patted her shoulder sympathetically. "I know." They stayed like that for a moment, and then Tenten said in a brisk voice with a brighter tone, "And I think I can get Sakura to go and pick up some groceries."

-

"Where are we going?" asked a rather amused Uchiha Sasuke.

"To the grocery store," Sakura replied simply, shoving her feet into a pair of Tenten's high-top Converse. She stepped easily over the doorstep and held open the door for Sasuke.

"Why am I coming?" he asked, continuing to sound amused.

"To carry all of the bags. There's too much stuff on the list for me to do it on my own," Sakura grudgingly explained. He raised his eyebrows, so she sighed and pulled out a tightly wadded roll of paper from the pocket of her jacket. It unrolled all the way to the floor and then some, covered in Tenten's precise handwriting.

"Hn."

She rolled it back up again and continued to walk. He kept up easily to her long strides, to Sakura's annoyance. She despised being shorter than him.

"How are we getting there?" he asked. She poked her tongue out of the corner of her mouth.

"What is this, twenty questions?" He shrugged indifferently.

There was a moment of silence where all that was to be heard was the sound of their sneakers against the pavement as they walked. The silence stretched into a sort of uncomfortable stoniness that set into the atmosphere. At last, Sakura had to break it lest it drive her insane.

"If you must know, we're going to ride my moped."

Sasuke's eyebrows arched high up into his hair. "You have a moped?" His voice sounded more than enough surprised. After all, a moped should have been easy enough to notice if it was just parked in the backyard. Now it was Sakura's turn to smirk.

"What, you didn't take me for that type of girl?" She fished out the keys and jingled them expertly. She spun the keyring around her index finger, rounded the broken-down fence, and smiled fondly.

"I drive," she said in a tone that clearly said that there was to be no argument on the point. Sasuke followed, his face expressionless, studying the blue vehicle.

Sakura swung her leg over the seat and jammed the key into the ignition. The blue thing roared to life immediately. "You coming?" she questioned, as Sasuke had shown no sign of getting on, "Or are you scared?" she teased. That did it. He climbed on behind her. She revved the throttle experimentally, and Sasuke snaked his arms around her waist, his hands pushing up her shirt slightly to touch her stomach.

She shivered, and hated herself for it. "Sasuke-kun," she warned.

"Payback," he said into her ear.

"For what?"

He didn't answer, and she wasn't in the mood to argue. The moped was a bit jerky at first, but it smoothed out once they were on the main road to the supermarket. She felt ridiculous, a feeling that she had never felt before while the wind whipped her face on the little vehicle. She and her moped had a sort of bond, and a ride on it had always served to calm her brain instead of confuse it. Then again, she had never had Sasuke sitting behind her either.

As traffic slowed slightly toward the city center, Sasuke smirked and pressed his mouth to her neck.

"Eep!" Sakura squeaked, and the moped did a sputtering leap of speed forward, nearly jamming into the delivery truck in front of them. Sasuke's smirk grew wider, and he stroked her bellybutton with his index finger.

She turned her head to glare murderously at him. "Stop it."

He looked at her. "Hn." He didn't stop.

They went at a slightly faster pace now, and the supermarket was about four blocks away. His mouth touched her ear. The moped jumped again. Angrily, she changed lanes, and then stopped it by the curb. She got off, and started stalking down the sidewalk.

He forced himself to hide his amusement and followed quietly. "Where are you going?"

"I'm walking, Captain Obvious. If you weren't so…well, since you seem intent on getting us both killed in a traffic accident, I'm going alone to the supermarket and you can stay right here." She sniffed, and set a faster pace.

He raised an eyebrow, and sped up slightly. "You think a traffic accident could kill us?" he asked in a low voice, as for passerby not to hear. Sakura shivered at the tone, at the slight rumble she heard in his chest when his voice went deeper as it echoed. He noticed, and his eyes flashed.

"Do I scare you?"

She took a deep breath. "Not in the way that you think you do. Keep walking."

The cool air inside the aisles of frozen packages was a wake-up call from her muddled, jittery state. Sakura quickly picked up some warm-up kabobs, and found the eggs and all the other groceries on the never-ending, accursed list. Her grocery cart was about to spill over. The customer behind her in the check-out line eyed the mound incredulously.

Sasuke was leaning against a wall, with a bored, expressionless face and his hands in his pockets. She tried not to stare. He didn't move as she approached, so she shoved five of the grocery bags at his chest. He caught them before they could mortally wound him, and she gave him credit for not staggering under the weight.

"This is coming out of the orphanage budget," she muttered, glancing at the receipt.

-

"Neji-kun! We have kabobs!" Tenten called, chewing thoughtfully on one herself.

No response. She shrugged. Oh, well.

She trooped up the steps. "Neji-kun?" she called, and opened the dorm door. Her brown eyes widened. In the middle of the room were Naruto and Hinata. He had his arms thrown around her neck in a tight embrace, and her wolf ears had popped out, along with a tomato-red blush spreading all the way from her forehead to her toes. Nevertheless, Tenten thought, she seemed to be rather enjoying it.

Quietly, she closed the door again, feeling happy and giddy and lonely and sad all at the same time. She was glad for Hinata to have finally gotten what she had wanted for so long, but at the same time, it made her long for her own happy ending, (which seemed to have gone missing).

She sighed. "Neji-kun, I KNOW that you're up here, and you can run but you-"

"Cannot hide. Tenten, you are mistaken," said a voice behind her. _Neji._

She whirled, but he had vanished. An amused growl howled its way up her throat. "That's how you want to play, is it? I'm trying to give you a kabob and you're hiding. Yeesh, Neji-kun, you're so pathetic!"

No answer.

She rolled her eyes, and built up her running speed, flipping open doors on the upper floor and searching through each room with precise speed, (except for their own dormitory). To her puzzlement, he was nowhere.

"Out the window?" she mused.

"Iie."

She started, and whirled. He was standing right behind her. His eyes held cold disapproval. "You could not sense me when I shadowed you everywhere?"

She felt her stomach sink. "You were right behind me the entire time?"

"Hai." His expression did not change from the cold disapproval, however, he must have realized that her own expression was disappointed in his judgments. He reached out a hand and touched the top of her head as if she were a small child to be comforted, though he pulled it back almost as quickly.

She scowled murderously at him for the notion, though her stomach did an involuntary flip. _Damn you, Hyuuga Neji._ Hey, she was allowed to curse in her mind, alright?

He pushed past her and went down the steps.

-

Temari and Shikamaru sat on the edge of a relatively low cliff side, their feet dangling precariously over the edge. His hand was curled uncomfortably close to his body, and he felt awkward, not quite sure what to do with it. She smirked and pulled it into her grasp, pinning it under her own hand to the ground.

His lazy features did not change at the movement, though his fingers twitched slightly and his ears turned a tiny shade pinker.

Temari shook her head. "You should get out more often," she snorted.

He looked at her indignantly. "Troublesome woman, I'm fine the way I am."

She gave a small laugh. "Yeah, yeah. You'd do better if you got rid of your weak friends. Especially that blonde girl. She's too clingy for my tastes, and a crybaby to boot," she said carelessly, her eyes focused on the sky.

Shikamaru stiffened. "Temari, Ino's my friend."

"Exactly why you should get rid of her! I know you're dying to," she explained.

This time, his expression betrayed the tiny hint of a glare. "Ino is my friend," he repeated. "If you don't like her, then that's your problem." Temari raised her delicate golden eyebrows at him.

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes. She leaned forward easily and pressed her mouth against his, casual and cool as always. He returned the kiss as he always did everyday when she kissed him, feeling a fire burn in his throat and tasting a bittersweet sort of scent on her lips. It felt good, but there was something off about it.

He separated himself from her, watching her pant slightly with lack of air, and felt confused. He liked Temari. Why did this feel so strange? He shook his head ever so slightly, and this time, leaned back forward to kiss her. He wanted to drown himself in the feeling, to forget the twinges of unease in the pit of his stomach. Her lips were sweet, and he swiped them eagerly with his tongue. She brought her hand to his neck, and let it stay there.

He pulled her closer by the waist, and she moaned slightly as he deepened the kiss, unused to his new enthusiasm but not one to complain about it.

It worked. All thoughts of Ino fled his mind at the pungent smell of Temari's smooth skin.

-

"Cursed Temari," Gaara muttered.

He had no doubts about where she was, though she had never said so, (she never did). His annoyance at her interactions with the other Pack, in particular with Shikamaru, had inched past irritation and into the zones of anger. Matsuri sat across from him as he glared out of the window, looking on anxiously.

Kankurou rested his cheek on his hand and drawled out, "Give it a rest, Gaara…she's just going through a phase. She'll get over it."

Gaara spared a deadly glare at his brother, and Kankurou shut up.

"I could go fetch her if you wished," Matsuri said quietly. She had never returned Gaara's cloak, as he had never asked for it back. Gaara never was cold. The giant thing made her look even smaller, the fabric pooling in huge piles around her on the ground. She wrapped it tighter as a breeze came in through the window, taking that excuse as a reason to press her nose into the fabric and inhale deeply. It smelled like her sensei: wonderful, but she could not name the smell, except that it was a bit like pine needles with a metallic twinge…like blood and ice.

He ignored her request at first. Then, five seconds later, her turned slightly, his eyes not quite so angry, and looked at her sitting there on the floor. His wrist gave a small flick, indicating that she should go, and turned back to the window.

Matsuri scurried from the room.

-

"I love you," Temari whispered breathlessly.

Shikamaru hesitated before answering. He took her in: the beautiful eyes, the spiky, golden hair; the rumpled clothing and the shirt that had been pushed down slightly, so that it hung off the shoulder on one side, and revealed the creamy white skin at the beginning of the swell of her chest. It was button-down, and the buttons in the middle had been pulled open, so that you could see part of her stomach and belly-button. Her miniskirt had hiked up slightly, so that most of her thigh was visible in the fading light. He gulped.

"I..." he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Just then, there was a pattering of footsteps from the cliff, and they both turned abruptly. Temari hastily pulled her shirt back up. Matsuri came over the crest, her brown eyes curious. "Gaara-sensei wants you back, Temari-sempai," she whispered.

"Alright, alright," she said, sounding immediately casual and standing up, pretending to dust her skirt off.

Shikamaru stood as well, pain threatening to rip his chest into two pieces as he followed the two women back towards the towering orphanage.

-

**A/N: A bit of a different chapter there…hope you enjoyed!!**


	23. Redemption

**A/N: Yeah, that comment that I made a few chapters back about this being over soon? I take that back. I think this story will be occupying my fanfiction time for quite a while yet --;**

**And I'm so excited that there's so many REVIEWS! –hugglesquish- I mean, I have over 20 chapters up, yes, but still, I have over 150 reviews and I'm about to faint!!! I've never had this many in my life on fanfiction, (short as it has been). THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU…ETC. **

**Thanks for the positive feedback, even when I deserved to be flamed…-sniff-**

**In any case, I'll try to update fast, but my mind is working slow without homework to keep it unrusty, (I know, that sounded so weird…wishing for homework??)…summer is trying to destroy my evil brain. --;**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Gray Phase:**

**Redemption**

**-**

"…_if you ever repeat this, I will cheerfully beat you to death."_

_-Bella, TWILIGHT_

-

"Hmmm…so what do you use it for?" Tenten asked curiously.

Ino sighed, exasperated. "Tenten, are you seriously serious that you don't know what a mascara tube looks like?" The blonde could not imagine such a pitiful state as not having ever put on mascara. She smoothed back a strand of her long platinum hair from her forehead and stared meaningfully at Tenten.

Tenten shrugged. "This is mascara?" She twirled the shiny tube between her fingers, from between her index and middle to clamped between her ring and pinky fingers, and then back again.

Ino put her face into her hands, secretly glad that she had something to distract her from depression over a guy.

"Tenten, this is pathetic, you know," she said.

She could not see Tenten shrug through her hands, but she felt it in the air. "I don't really see why I need to put it on." There was a slight swish sound when she pulled out the applicator, covered in drippy black gunk, and winced. Ino stared at her, having looked up from her palms.

"_Why_ you need to put it on? Isn't it obvious?"

Tenten shook her head, her brow furrowed in a mild effort to understand Ino's panic at this innocent question. Ino sighed and grabbed the tube and the applicator from Tenten's hand and led the way into the bathroom, motioning slightly to indicate that her friend should follow.

"You put it on like this," she said, and brushed some black onto her eyelashes to demonstrate. She looked strange, with one eye emphasized with long and black lashes and the other seemingly plain with the short blonde ones.

Tenten raised an eyebrow. "Ino, my eyelashes are already close to black."

Ino shook her head. "It makes them look nicer." Tenten waved her hand in a gesture that clearly indicated, "whatever", and breezed airily out of the bathroom.

"Ja ne," she said, and waltzed out of the dorm before Ino could even get out a word of protest.

-

"This _sucks_," Sakura said, savagely stabbing a potato dumpling covered in a greenish vegetable sauce. Hinata had cooked it, so she didn't have many doubts about the coloring of the thing, which was hot pink, as she would have if Ino had cooked it. She popped it into her mouth and chewed as if the dumpling had done her a wrong.

Shikamaru watched her and didn't try to argue. He didn't want to be sporting two black eyes for the next month or two. She rounded on him. "Shikamaru, you're supposed to ask what sucks."

"What sucks?"

"Everything," she muttered, and shook her head, picking up a fashion catalogue that Ino had left on the coffee table and burying her face into it. Shikamaru glanced at her warily and decided that he was in beyond his head.

After a second, the magazine pages rustled and Sakura set it back down. "Alright. Fine, not everything," she said. She popped in another dumpling, and swallowed it whole. Shikamaru watched this feat with astonishment, watching the lump move down her throat.

"Just Sasuke-kun," she continued her sentence as if without interruption.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "I thought that-"

"Well, you thought wrong!" Sakura interrupted, sounding snippy, and this time popped two dumplings into her mouth to distract her, her mouth twisted into a grimace even as her molars ground up the food. She had a drip of green sauce at the corner of her lip.

"What did he do?" Shikamaru asked carefully. He ducked as Sakura's fist swung past and missed by a hair. She didn't seem to care.

"Absolutely nothing!" she declared.

Shikamaru furrowed his brow at her, and at first didn't reply and flipped on the TV to a boring news channel that served as a satisfactory background hum. "So…" he said slowly.

Sakura glared at him, and he shut up.

"Don't ask questions."

"Yes, ma'am."

-

Tenten sat out in the yard, her flip flops discarded in a little pile along with her zip-up jacket in the slightly dewy grass at her side. The tree root she was sitting on was probably old, as the bark was peeling and the knobby shape was biting into her bottom as she gazed at the sky. The wind was getting chilly, and goose bumps rose up her arms.

"Tenten."

She looked up wordlessly, knowing already who it was. "Neji-kun."

She shifted slightly to make room, and he sat down, somehow managing to sit right in a dry patch of land. She scowled. How had she managed to miss _that_? The slight moisture from the tree bark that had sunk into her pants felt humiliating.

His long hair, for once, was undone from its loose pony. Absently, she ran a finger through it, marveling how it was smoother and silkier than any girl's. The color was rich, and though her own hair was also brown, she suddenly felt like it was dry and ugly in comparison. At the very least, she probably had a dozen split ends, and his loose hair held none.

Neji turned slightly to look at her. She stopped playing with his hair and looked at him questioningly. "Why are you out here?" she asked him.

He grunted. "Hn."

She shrugged. "Oh. That explains a lot."

She reached for his hair again, not feeling hurt by his reluctance to talk. It was something she was used to from when they were smaller. This time, he turned slightly again, so that her fingertips touched air instead. "Oh. Sorry," she muttered, feeling stupid.

It occurred to her how much he looked like he didn't belong in this century, let alone this day. He seemed so apart from how time worked, how _everything_ worked. His long brown hair framed a pale face set with even paler, almost translucent white-blue eyes that seemed to be cold as a spring brook and holding wisps of wisdom that many did not know. They held dark secrets that she had never set eyes on, and ones that she never wished to know. Even his pale, non-descript clothing gave him a sort of ethereal, magical sort of aura that made her give a shiver having nothing to do with the cold.

He, however, did not know this, and eyed her. "Are you cold?"

She shook her head. "Iie."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked in a flat, uninterested voice that nobody else could ever have pulled off.

Tenten shook herself internally. "I'm not looking at you funny."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Tenten."

"Alright, fine. I am. Neji-kun…you've changed," she said quietly.

There was a slight shift, and then silence for what seemed like an eternity. "Changed…" he mused slowly. "Tenten, I am the Alpha. Responsibility will…change…people," he said with difficulty, still not looking at her. She sighed slightly, and this time when she reached for his hair again, he did not stop her.

"Neji-kun, don't you remember when we used to be little and climb trees and I would play with your hair?" she asked him, pulling a rubber band carefully from her wrist and pulling together the strands of brown falling down his back.

"Hn," he said, his back perhaps a little stiff.

She tied his hair back up and touched his shoulder lightly. "As long as you still remember, then change is alright," she said.

-

Uchiha Sasuke was having a mental breakdown.

Alright, so maybe not a real _mental breakdown_, because _the_ Uchiha Sasuke did not have mental breakdowns, but he was coming pretty close while he was coming apart at the seams.

_I can not stay here._

_**Who says you can't?**_

_It is my decision. I cannot keep endangering them._

_**Them? I think you mean just **_**her.**

_I need to gain more control over my abilities. I cannot do that when she is with me._

_**Then leave. Who cares?**_

_Iie…_

He shook his head. He was a vessel containing abilities that most werewolves only dreamed of having. He knew that if he unlocked these potentials, he could easily beat Subaku no Gaara, and Hyuuga Neji. He also knew that if he managed to free his hidden talents, there would be no going back.

No going back. He had no control over the things he could do. He needed to gain control. Before he hurt one of the Pack. Before he hurt _her._

He had been secretly dreading the moment when he would have to make a decision about this rising power for months now. His urge to bite Sakura…to rip her to pieces…he winced. It was increasing.

With any newfound power at all, he could not hold himself in any longer. He had to leave, to go far, far away. Where her life was no longer forfeit if he accidentally unleashed his inner self.

He closed his eyes, feeling the red color coming on, and tried violently to stop it, waging an inner battle with himself.

_Sakura._

-

"Hinata-chan, come on!" Naruto said happily, holding her hand to lead her on.

Hinata tried to follow after him as fast as she could, though the shoes she was wearing were too casual for running, and too loose.

"W-Where are we g-going?"

He shrugged, and slowed down a tad. "No where in particular."

Her ears sprouted out again when he abruptly turned around and hugged her, right in the middle of the Orphanage's front yard. He sniffed her ears, looking hyper and giddy. "Hinata-chan, you're so funny sometimes!"

Hinata flushed red. "Naruto-kun…"

He backed off suddenly, and she felt cold. "N-Naruto…kun?" she repeated timidly, frightened by the expression that had suddenly appeared in his blue eyes, deadly serious. It was unusual for the joking tone to be gone from his voice.

"Gaara."

She whirled, and he was there, along with Kankurou. They were in a casual stance, hands in pockets, though the usual predatory gleam was no missing from the redhead's eyes. Naruto's own eyes narrowed in return. "What do you want?" he snapped.

Gaara smirked. "Lunch," said Kankurou. Just as Naruto stiffened, he ended the simple statement with a laugh, as if it were some sort of cruel joke. "Just kiddin', kid. You sure are a weird one," he commented.

Naruto growled, feeling disgruntled. "Go away."

Kankurou raised his eyebrows. "Is the baby going to cry?" His purple tattoos twisted with every movement of his facial features, so that his expressions seemed dramatic and alive with some sort of horrible curse. He took a step forward, and Gaara did not stop him. Naruto went into a protective stance.

"Get away from her," he growled a warning. "I won't ever forgive you if you hurt Hinata-chan!"

Kankurou laughed, although there was nothing happy about the sound. "I wouldn't doubt it, though I'm going to have to kill you first to get to her. I can see you're not the smart kind of guy who would just back down and run for your life."

Naruto's expression was grim when he did not answer.

-

**A/N: Yay, action!! Please review!**


	24. Punishment

**A/N: OMG I am so sorry for the long, long update…I suddenly lost track of time and forgot all about my writing, which sounds like a lame excuse, but it's true --;**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Gray Phase:**

**Punishment**

**-**

_She had no intention of being swept off her feet…_

_-THE WEDDING PLANNER'S DAUGHTER_

-

Something wasn't right.

Haruno Sakura's sixth sense was tingling, amplified as it was by her wolfish abilities. Unpleasant tremors moved down her spine. She shivered, though it was not cold, and got up from the sofa, automatically moving up the steps.

"Sasuke-kun," she murmured to his back in the dark.

He turned and looked at her, his expression dull. She felt a whole new type of fright in her stomach, but forced her voice to remain calm. "Where's Naruto?" she asked, her voice coming out in barely in a whisper. He had heard her.

Sasuke got up, his hands in his pockets. "The dobe?" She nodded. He gave an uncommitted shrug, and followed her casually as she rushed back down the steps, the fear in her stomach increasing. He had only been gone for two hours or so, but it was getting dark and Naruto never was away this long…The tingling in her spine increased…

"Tenten?" she called into the darkness. "Tenten! Where are you?"

The brunette answered by appearing in the room out of the gloom of a narrow hallway, Neji following her. "Have you seen Naruto?"

"Naruto?" asked Tenten in confusion. "What do you need with him?"

"It's…I'm worried…Tenten, he's been gone for hours with Hinata and I have this feeling…" She shuddered. Tenten gave her an odd look, but did not comment.

"Have you tried the yard?" she suggested. Sakura shook her head.

"I only just started looking…c'mon, we'll go see."

They opened the door to the front yard. At first, all seemed calm. The moon, barely a sliver of crescent opal, gleamed in a velvety blue sky with stars that twinkled like harmless diamonds. There was a cool breeze which made goose bumps rise on their skin. She walked towards the big tree in front, squinting into the dark. "Naruto? Where are you?" she called.

There was a dark shape under the tree. Her steps faltered. _No._

Her knees buckled, and she barely stumbled over to the tree before they gave way. "Nar…ru…to," she breathed. He was lying there on his back, his arm twisted into an odd angle underneath him; his face sported gashes of gleaming red blood, another giant wound mutating his chest. His eyes were half-closed and glazed.

She was feeling the odd sensation of being in a dream: her movements too slow, and as if this was all happening to somebody else.

"Naruto…wake up," she said, her voice shaking. "Wake up, you have to wake up…"

She shook his shoulders experimentally, her fingers trembling. "Wake up! Naruto, you baka, this isn't funny!" she screamed, the volume of her own too-high voice causing her to jump slightly. There was a muffled thump as she let his shoulders go, and he fell back to the soft grass around him.

She was trembling, and until the first few drops of tears landed into her upturned palms, she didn't realize why. There were footsteps behind her, and then Tenten was next to her. She pressed a finger to the side of his neck for a moment, her face grim. Then, her features suddenly sagged with relief. "Sakura! Sakura, there's a pulse!"

Sakura's green eyes widened in return. Why hadn't she thought to check for that?

"C'mon, let's get him inside. The wind can't be doing him any good," Tenten decided, hefting him under the armpits. "Well? Aren't you going to help me, gentlemen, or will I have to drag him?" she snapped at Sasuke and Neji, who hadn't moved a step. Neji moved forward and grabbed his legs, but Sasuke continued to stare, a deep look of disgust on his face.

"You OK?" Sakura whispered to him anxiously, her eyes probing his face. His eyes resembled cold orbs of black glass, imbedded in that face too perfect to be real.

Sasuke shook his head. "This is my fault."

"No, it's not. It's nobody's fault," Sakura said firmly. "We just have to find Hinata…" she trailed off at the hard expression of his face.

"I take the blame for this," he said slowly. He glared at her when she opened her mouth to interrupt, and she closed it again. "All of the bad things that happen here will be my fault."

"What…do you mean?" she asked quietly.

"Subaku no Gaara may be a monster," he continued in that same slow tone, "But I can beat him. I can slaughter more than he ever will imagine. I can shed more blood of innocents than he will in a lifetime."

"Sasuke-kun…" she started.

"I can kill," he continued as if without interruption. "I can _kill_, Sakura. I can make him bleed for what he did to Naruto." He sneered, and his face was contorted into an expression that was demonic as it was terribly beautiful. Her eyes widened, and her hands balled into fists.

"Don't do this," she said just as slowly as he had, her voice sounding like a stranger's.

"I do what I want," he said, and the look in his eyes added, _and nobody can challenge that._ She believed him.

"Please," she whispered. "You're not yourself."

"Aren't I?" he said, his eyebrow raised, eyes now slightly amused. And then, just as suddenly as the darkly sadistic side of him had come on, it was gone, to be replaced with an expression that was not cold, though it was remote. His eyes held pools of hidden agony, though that disappeared so quickly that Sakura was not sure if it had been there at all.

"Sakura…I have to leave," he said softly after a few moments of silence just standing there.

She couldn't feel her hands. "Oh…you do," she said, her voice barely coming out. It seemed like a stupid thing to say, but she could not think of anything else just then.

"I have no choice," he continued in the same soft voice, though it was not tender. In fact, it was so cold that it froze her insides. "I do not wish to stay here any longer." Under the simple words, she read a new meaning into them:

_I don't want you, Sakura._

"When?" she choked out.

"When?" he echoed, seemingly detached and confused by her question. "Now, while the Hyuuga cannot stop me. I have few belongings."

Of course. Wolves did not pack when they were on the move. She shook her head.

"Sasuke-kun…" Her eyes had dried, and she was surprised that more tears did not come. "I…" It came out as a plea, but she decided against it halfway through. He would not care. "I…would…miss you."

Rain sprinkled down from the sky, quickly gathering more water and began to pelt.

She looked up at him, the hint of a tiny smile on her face, her green eyes swimming with something close to remorse and dripping rainwater. "Could I hold you?" she asked softly. The question sounded childish and stupid, and completely out of the subject, but she couldn't help it slipping out. His expression remained cold, but something in her utterly broken expression must have done something. He nodded silently.

She wrapped her arms around him, her wet face pressed into his chest, the wet fabric of their clothing sticking together. She inhaled slightly, and a sob finally racked her frame. She suppressed it determinedly, and simply just hung onto him, remembering everything. After a minute, he wrapped his arms around her waist, and squeezed her a bit too hard, and just a tad too tenderly, for somebody who no longer cared for anything or anybody.

She let go, and looked up silently into his face. "Will you come back?" she asked.

He looked at her, contemplating, and then slowly, shook his head. "Iie."

She bit her lip, though she had know that would be the answer, it still cut like shards of jagged glass into her heart. "I guess this is…goodbye…then," she said, surprised when her voice did not waver, though the word "goodbye" seemed to sear her tongue.

He nodded. She took a half-step back, and he turned and was gone into the rain.

-

"Oi, Forehead-girl! Where've you been??! Tenten said you were right behind her, and then we had to take care of Naruto. By the time we realized you weren't there, it was raining cats and dogs and we couldn't go out to search for you… We found Hinata; she's in hysterics about Naruto's state, but I think he's waking up…Sakura?"

The drenched pink-haired wolf smiled at her blonde friend. Ino pursed her lips worriedly at the hopeless expression on her friends face, and pulled her into Tsunade's room. Naruto was lying on the sofa there. "We can't tell ANYBODY about this," she whispered. "Tsunade's not going to be back for a while, but if anybody finds out that Naruto was injured this badly, they would send him to the hospital, and how would be explain how fast his wounds are healing, and the type of venom in the cuts?"

Sakura only nodded, and gazed down at the sleeping face of her blonde friend. Hinata was sitting by his head, her white eyes wide, her left hand unconsciously on his shoulder. Her face was white.

"He's just sleeping," said Shikamaru, who was lounging in Tsunade's swivel chair and doing sudokus with a speed that was so incredible it looked almost fake. "He'll probably be scarfing snacks this time tomorrow."

Ino flicked him in the side of the head, and he grimaced. "Show a little respect!" she chided. "He was attacked, Shika!" She paused. "Then again, you're probably right," she amended.

"Hey, where's the Uchiha brat?" Tenten asked curiously.

Sakura stiffened. "I don't know," she answered truthfully.

"Hmmm…" Tenten said, squinting at her friend, her wolfish sixth sense obviously at work. "Are you absolutely sure? He's missing when Naruto's looking like he got cut up with a cheese grater," she muttered.

"Who did it?" Sakura asked dully, deflecting her question.

Tenten snorted. "Subaku no Gaara, of course. Who else would?"

Ino glared pointedly at Shikamaru. "See? I told you that she had problems."

"This was her _brother, _Ino, not her," he sighed, though he did look a tad uneasy. "Might I remind you of how _your_ brother used to be behave? If we judged you with that, you would be a rather friendless personage right now," he said smugly. She whacked him, hard.

"Don't badmouth my brother," she seethed.

"I'm just speaking the truth," he said after she had turned away.

"He is awake," Neji stated. All eyes turned to the blonde on the couch, who blearily blinked his blue eyes, and turned to look at all of his friends around him. He winced slightly as he sat up.

"Where…what…Gaara," he said.

Ino nodded grimly. "Yes, he tried to eat Hinata. But she is an amazing runner…she got away safely. You, on the other hand, look like you got.-"

"Run through a cheese grater, yes," Tenten verified to much laughter.

Naruto grimaced as he felt the scratches on his face. "I'm going to murder that guy," he vowed venomously. Hinata pushed him back to the sofa. He seemed to notice that he was lying next to her for the first time.

"Hinata-chan…sorry I couldn't protect you," he said softly. The rest of the wolves abruptly turned away, busying themselves with their jacket zippers or other unimportant things. Tenten stared at the ceiling, pretending that nothing of interest was going on.

All except for Sakura, who stared at the two with a sort of hopeless longing in her eyes, her hands clasped so tightly that the knuckles glowed white.

"It's a-alright, Naruto-kun," she replied, her tone saturated with relief. "I'm just g-glad that you're s-safe." Her hand rested on the back of his hand. He wiggled his fingers, and she giggled softly.

"What are we going to do about Gaara, Neji-kun?" Tenten cleared her throat and Hinata blushed, embarrassed.

Neji's expression was grim. "We have been forced to drive his Pack off of our land. Attacking one of our Pack has given us rights to do so."

All of them cheered.

Ino yawned and stretched. "Well, if we're going to be the enforcers of justice, I want to rest up. 'Night." Shikamaru got up to follow her, as he slept for 12 hours a night, every night.

"You look like you could use some rest too, Sakura," Tenten commented worriedly, observing the grayness of Sakura's skin and her dull, half-closed green eyes. She smiled serenely, as if she had not really heard Tenten, and got up, waltzing out of the room in a way that made even Neji look up in slight concern.

"I'll s-stay with Naruto-kun t-tonight," Hinata said softly.

Naruto shrugged, and then winced. "No need, Hinata-chan. I'll be okay." She read something in his eyes, and then gave a hesitant nod.

"A-Alright."

Neji and Tenten followed her out of the room, and flipped the light switch for Naruto, who almost instantly began to snore loudly. Just before they reached the dorm door, and after Hinata had gone safely inside, Tenten grasped Neji's shoulder. "Neji-kun," she whispered into the darkness. "I know you're stressed, but you really don't need to worry so much about us. We can take care of ourselves."

Neji casually shrugged off her hand, and did not glance back to meet her eyes. "I need to concern myself with your wellbeing, Tenten."

Then he pushed open the door, and was swallowed by the darkness of the room.

Tenten stood there for a moment, wondering what he had meant.

**A/N: Fluffiness…but so sad --; That scene was stuck in my head forever. **


	25. Mourning

**A/N: OK, so now the last chapter was so depressing, (well, at least some parts of it), this one might just be a bit more cheerful. Enjoy. AND ALL THE REVIEWS!! xD**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Feather Phase:**

**Mourning**

**-**

_Why does the road lead in three directions: forward, backward, and to the side?—asked the child on black days when we lose even our own image in the mirror._

_You who remember me less than a rainy day…who shed each other like leaves?...Is there ever a snowy day that does not dream of a blooming night?_

_-FIRST WORDS OF SADNESS_

-

A book.

A book lay open in her lap, aged and bound with rotting brown leather and with yellow-edged pages that threatened to shatter into a million pieces if fingertips were not carefully gentle when flipping them, revealing the timeless black calligraphy of poetry.

Pink hair grazed the side of an arched, creamy cheek. Green orbed eyes gazed like dead glass onto the words. Her lush lips mouthed the words silently, and they seemed to hang in the deadened air.

_How the marks of homecoming and departure intermingle and the rose rotting on the ground is a sign of life._

The book slipped from her fingers, and seemed to fall in slow motion until it hit against the wooden floorboards with a muffled bang.

_I, too, soaked myself for years in the ink of sorrow…_

She reached her hand up, and touched her face as if to make sure that it was really there, that it was really real. She didn't know who she was, what she did, why she existed. If she did not, that would be a blessing. She did not know a purpose, she simply was. She was in being, and that was torture. She traced her mouth.

_The first and sad words of a conversation that starts with death._

She placed her fingertips on top of her silken eyelids, and gently pulled them down over her eyes. Ah, the darkness was so comforting. There was nothing to see, and nothing to see her. That was how it was, and that was how she wanted it now.

Blackest oblivion, the color of his hair.

Her eyes shot open. No, she would seek another comfort.

She rose, supported by legs that she could not feel, and floated towards the doorway. It was like being an angel, she thought with a mind that felt sleepy, just standing in the middle of a place that might have been dreamed.

She spread her fingers against the wooden door, and pressed her palm against it. She felt a sharp jolt of pain, and then something dripping. She raised her hand curiously to her face, watching blood drip from a cut in her palm. She eyed the door. There was a large splinter in it.

The blood was scarlet. Crimson. Crimson like his eyes, furious and hateful.

She shook her head violently, trying to deny it, shut it all out, and fell to her knees on the floor, clenched her hand into a fist so that she would not see it.

"…Sakura?"

Sakura. She had a name.

She looked up into Naruto's concerned features. For a moment, she had hoped…but no, he had said he was not coming back, and Uchiha Sasuke was a man of his word.

"He's gone, isn't he?" he asked gently, kneeling down so that they were at eye level. She nodded helplessly, glad that for once, her tear ducts seem to be out of function. Naruto nodded, knowing how she was feeling. But then, how could he ever know?

He cupped her shoulder in his hand. "Sakura-chan, stand up."

She allowed him to pull her up. He did not say anything, only studied her face, his own features lined with the same pain. "I'll kill the teme for doing that to you," he told her.

She shook her head. "Did…what…?"

"You're hurting, Sakura-chan."

"Oh…this is my fault…" she said, indicating the cut on her hand. He shook his head.

"Not that."

And she knew that he was referring to the agony that was killing her slowly from the inside; the knowledge that she was not good enough, that she never would be good enough, and that she would never see the perfectly pale face with the onyx eyes…no, she would not remember.

He had gone to a place where she could not follow.

-

"_Come with me."_

_It was not an order, yet the tone in which he spoke held such a commanding tone and the natural expectancy to be obeyed, she did follow._

"_What are you called?"_

"_Sakura. Haruno Sakura."_

"_Hn."_

"_What's your name?" she asked curiously, her child-like voice innocent._

_He paused in the woods. "Uchiha Sasuke."_

"_Hajimemashite, Sasuke-kun," she said politely._

"_Hn. Stay here." He indicated a small clearing, in the midst of a large circle of tall trees. She stared at him, and then a the trees, and then him again. The place where he had bitten her still stung._

"_Why? Where are you going?"_

_He glared at her. "You're annoying."_

_She frowned. _

"_I'm going somewhere where you can't follow me," he said._

"_Why?" she repeated._

_He raised an eyebrow, the expression of amusement exactly like his older self. "Because I don't like you. You talk too much."_

-

She awoke with a start, sitting on the sofa in the living room. The TV was blaring.

"Nice to see you awake, sleepyhead," Ino commented. Sakura jumped again. She was sitting on the other end of the couch. Lee was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, and playing Chinese Checkers with Tenten.

Her tense body relaxed. _Just a dream._

"I…fell asleep?" she asked, confused.

Ino snorted. "Yeah, like a newborn baby. Didn't want to wake you up."

She settled slightly, watching Lee beat Tenten at the checkers.

"YOSH! VICTORY IS MINE!" he cried happily after five more moves. Tenten rolled her eyes as he did the traditional victory lap on his hands around the living room, stopping and somehow managing to blow Sakura a kiss while standing on one hand before continuing.

Tenten flicked him in the forehead once he was about to get back on his feet, and he fell backwards, and upside down, onto the one-seater cushy chair behind him, a bemused expression on his face.

"Ah, Tenten, my flower of youth…I apologize for causing you distress at my seventh win," he said.

Tenten narrowed her eyes at him. "You picked this game on purpose. Besides, you sucked when you were playing Neji. That's why I wanted to play against you."

"I believe that is called 'hustling'," said Lee wisely. "You owe me five dollars."

Grudgingly, she pulled the money from her pocket and handed it to him, and he was gone down the hallway faster than the speed of light.

-

A whimper.

Matsuri fell back onto the ground, hard, sliding several feet before coming to a stop. There was a deep gash across her face, and her back seared from the burn that the skidding had caused.

Gaara advanced on her, his green eyes furious. "More blood," he lisped.

She shook her head violently. "G-Gaara-sensei!"

Kankurou, who was watching, winced. "Gaara, I think she's had enough," he said meekly. Temari, who was also watching, crossed her arms and smirked.

"Let him have his fun, Kankurou."

Gaara bent down over his shivering student, and dragged one long nail slowly across her collarbones. The cut was shallow, but it bled fresh blood as soon as the nail touched her skin.

Her eyes were wide and fearful as she looked up into his leering face.

"You said she was under the tree," he said softly enough so that only she could hear. "You said she was alone, without the blonde brat. You said we would have flesh to eat, without any disturbances."

Matsuri shook in terror, her head shaking side to side without her consciously realizing it. "Iie, S-Sensei…gomen! It was a mistake…"

She screamed as he sent her flying. Her body twisted in midair, and she used her arms to shield her face as she landed on her stomach. She coughed blood.

"_Insolence_!" he sneered.

"Gaara!" Kankurou protested.

He was silenced with a glare from the red-headed Alpha.

"Leave the girl," Temari called. "She'll be alright. I think she's learned her lesson."

"Go, you two," Gaara said. Temari and Kankurou stood, and then hesitantly started walking back towards the orphanage. Once they were out of sight, Gaara turned back to the trembling girl.

"You told lies," he drawled.

She pushed herself up, and for the first time in her life, looked him in the face without any trace of being humble. Though her breath came in gasps, and she was clutching her bruised ribcage with one arm shielded across her stomach, she stared him in the face. His cloak was still wrapped around her, though it had a large tear running from her right shoulder to her left hip.

"I was mistaken," she gasped. "But I did not lie."

He raised his eyebrows. "I have been merciful," he said slowly, walking deliberately towards her. She took an unwilling step back.

He stopped when he was a foot away from her. She had to tilt her head back to look at his face now. The gash had stopped bleeding, leaving streaks across her pale face.

Then, her momentary boldness gave way, her knees buckled, and collapsed. He caught her easily, and lifted her up. Her eyes were closed. He stared at her for a moment, and then he too started back towards the orphanage.

-

"Ha! BS!" Tenten crowed.

Neji glared at her, and then picked up the large pile of cards in the middle of the loose circle. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"This game is so easy. It's a simple matter of strategizing and probability," he said just to irk Neji further.

"Shut up, you're not playing," Naruto muttered, eyeing his own deck with a look of deepest hatred. He had 20 cards.

Ino laughed at him. "You've got to have a better poker face, Naruto."

"Poker faces are only easy when you have a good deck," he snapped back.

The seven of them were sitting on the floor of the attic, which had all of its windows open and was actually quite pleasant once it had been cleaned out. Here, nobody bothered them and they bothered nobody. It was their own little place. Sakura was the only one who had not joined in playing the card game or watching. She was gazing forlornly out of the sunshine-filled window.

After a while, Hinata got up and walked over to her friend. "S-Sakura-chan…I think h-he was planning to l-leave for a long t-time," she said gently.

Sakura looked up and smiled faintly. "I know…"

"Yeah, I mean, I miss him so much that I could die," Tenten said sarcastically. Everybody laughed. It was no secret that Tenten was jubilant that the Uchiha had left at last. Sakura smiled too.

"I'm also going to cheerfully shred him bit by bit through my sharpest cheese grater the next time I see him, and then burn the pieces," Tenten added, inspecting her deck. "He had no right to hurt you that much, Sakura."

"I guess," said the pink-haired wolf, and turned back to her window.

Ino nudged Shikamaru. "You hear that?"

"What?"

"Guys aren't allowed to hurt girls' feelings," she emphasized.

He sighed. "When are you going to give it a rest, troublesome woman?"

"Never," she said smugly. Tenten laughed and gave her a thumbs up while Hinata sat back down next to her. Naruto hastily stuffed half of his large deck behind his back while everybody else was distracted.

"I saw that," said Ino pointedly.

He scowled.

-

**A/N: OK, so I guess that turned out more depressing than the last one --; Sorry.**


	26. Dream

**A/N: Alright, so I updated double!! And I'm passed 200 reviews!! Thank you, everybody, who commented. I know, Sasuke is a jerk and Sakura's being all depressed and Naruto got mangled and Ino wants to kill Shika and Gaara's sadistic. What else is bad? xD**

**Naruto is now Beta of the Pack, because everybody technically has an invisible rank, and he's third strongest.**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Feather Phase:**

**Dream**

**-**

_Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it._

_-Michel de Montaigne _

-

CRASH. TWANG.

A dejected sigh.

"My _God_, Nara Shikamaru, is your brain so big that it's made you into a klutz?!" Ino yelled, helping him right the drum sets for the fifth time. He glared at her as the bass drum gave an echoing bang when his shoulder rammed into it. "This thing is so heavy, it's a wonder that you can tip it over!" she chided.

"Ino, we're all miserable enough already, alright? Cut me some slack," he complained as they set down the drums.

"What, surprised that your girlfriend's trying to murder us?" Ino seethed, venom dripping from her voice. Shikamaru glared at her even more sharply.

"Urusai!"

She gave him the hairy eyeball. "Don't tell me to shut up."

"Get off Temari's back, then! Neji's going to make us drive her out, isn't that enough for you?" he retorted angrily. "I'm probably never going to see her again." Abruptly, he fell backwards onto the floor, and put his head into his arms.

Ino faltered, and then sat down next to her friend. "Sorry," she murmured after a little while of silence.

He looked up at her with a dejected expression. "Yeah, it's okay."

"So you really like her, huh?"

Shikamaru sighed, like he often did when explaining complicated math concepts and strategic planning to Naruto and the blonde just scratched his head and shrugged. "Too much."

Ino flicked him in the side of the head. "Well, if that's true, then I guess it's alright."

He stared at her in disbelief. "Seriously?"

She paused. "No."

Ino smoothed back her silvery-blonde bangs from her face, her blue eyes staring at her curled up legs and feet, which had on a pair of immensely fluffy pink slippers. Shikamaru eyed the slippers too, and snorted. "Women."

She pushed him, and laughed a little. "I don't like Temari, but I'm your friend, right? I'm supposed to look out for your wellbeing," she explained. "Even if you don't love me, we'll still be friends."

"But I do love you, Ino…just not like Temari."

"Well, friend-love is different."

There was a pause. Then, Shikamaru said, "I've really been acting like a jerk to you, eh? And you're mad at me. Mendokusai." Ino laughed again.

"As long as you think I won't forgive you, at least you'll still stay with me to try and make amends. That's good. It means you won't leave with Temari, or go off on your own like Sasuke."

He looked at her carefully. "I'm not going anywhere."

-

"Hah!"

Tenten succeeded in connecting a roundhouse kick to Lee's ribcage, sending him flying into a tree. However, he just cheerfully got up again and dusted himself off, giving her a valiant thumbs-up sign. "Tenten-san, you're improving!"

"Improving? Nah, I had it in me to cream you all along," she laughed.

Lee shrugged, seemingly not bothered in the slightest bit of losing his manly pride at being beaten by a girl in martial arts. "I still have not thanked you enough for my new jumpsuit!" He gazed at the green thing fondly. She shuddered.

"That's okay," she replied hastily. "No need to thank me."

Suddenly, her stomach muscles tensed. There was somebody behind her. There was a hot breath on her neck. Then, "Boo." Out of her peripheral vision, she saw a shock of blonde hair.

"NARUTO, I'M GOING TO STRANGLE YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!" she screamed, chasing after him into the house. Neji, who was sitting in the living room and bent over a giant book, did not glance up as the two of them sped by.

-

"And so you see, each of us has many probabilities of physical appearance depending on the phenotype of our parent's genes," explained one Yuuhi Kurenai.

Sakura, with her science notebook open, gazed slightly open-mouthed at the board, not really paying attention. She wasn't the only one: most of the girls were passing notes under the battered school tables, and the boys were all gazing at their science teacher wit ha sort of awe, probably due more to her lovely face than to the figures she was pointing to on the board.

Just then, the timer on Kurenai's desk rang, signaling the end of the science glass for the day. Sakura got up in relief, joining the other teenagers in going from the room. There were only twenty or so in the class.

"Uh, Sakura-san?"

She turned to see a shy-looking boy with an honest face and brown hair that fell into his blue eyes. He would have been quite handsome with normal standards, if not for the werewolves living there.

"Would you like to…" he fidgeted slightly, "…go out with me sometime?"

Normally, she would have awkwardly scrambled for an excuse to turn him down, or just plain ignored him, but now she was beyond caring about such things like manners and hurting other people's feelings by a misplaced word here and there. She shook her head slowly.

"Sorry."

He looked hurt and confused. "Oh. That's okay. Why not?"

She paused, unable to think of an excuse that sounded sane. _I'm depressed because the man I've loved since childhood, who happens to be a werewolf, has left me to rot here while he goes and seeks control over his maniacal powers, and I hate mortal men who try and take me on dates. Did I mention I'm depressed?_

"I'm already taken," she said finally.

He furrowed his brow. "Really?" Then he smiled weakly. "Who's the lucky guy?"

Her wide green eyes crinkled slightly, a real light in them for the first time since _he_ had left. "Uchiha Sasuke." His name fell like liquid from her mouth, smooth and beautiful and natural. She bit her lip until she tasted blood.

_What possessed me to say that? He was never mine. He never wanted me. And now he's gone._

But the boy didn't sense anything strange about her. "Oh. I don't know him. Sorry for bothering you, then." He rushed past her towards his waiting group of friends, obviously embarrassed for her less than tactful rejection.

-

"Hmm."

The Weapons Mistress was blushing slightly. She had reason enough to. Her cheek was pressed to one Hyuuga Neji's unclothed shoulder blade, which happened to be hot enough to give her sunburn. She winced as she pulled her face away. "That's some inflammation you have," she commented.

For the last fifteen minutes, she had been trying to get ice for him, when Ino informed her that there was none, so she had used sink water, which happened to be too warm because Naruto had just taken a shower with all the cold water, and now she was using her own skin. It was quite cold, as she was clammy with nervous cold sweat.

Tenten pressed her hand flat against Neji's bare back, and his muscles twitched slightly under her palm. "Does it hurt here?" she asked gently.

He turned his head toward her slightly. "Iie."

Circling out from the middle of his back was a huge blue design that might have been a tattoo, if it had not been so intricate. It looked like a cross between a six-pointed compass and a henna sun. In the middle was a rune that looked like a triangle crossed with a sort of abstract arrow. Letters in some ancient script spiraled out from this symbol.

"It's been a while, huh?" Tenten said softly, touching the center of the symbol. He flinched. She drew back slightly.

"Sorry. It hurts there, right?" He nodded stiffly.

Lightly, she touched her finger to the spot again, and growled a word that wasn't in any known human language—a wolf word. For a moment, the spot glowed pale blue, and then the light was gone. She pressed it lightly. He didn't move. "Is the pain gone?"

"Hn."

"Full moon," she mused. "Why didn't you tell me to seal the pain before, if it's been bothering you for a while?"

He didn't answer, instead just reaching over for his shirt and pulling it back on over his head. She sighed in exasperation.

"I know your Mark acts up when the moon's full, but even if you are Alpha, you've got to tell me if it starts paining. No need for anybody to suffer unnecessarily."

"Hn." He stood. "Arigato," he said without emotion.

She rolled her eyes. "No problem."

-

The room was bleary.

Matsuri blinked, and it came into sharp, clear focus. She shook her head, and then attempted to stretch. Instantly, sharp pain arched across her chest. She gasped, and reached up with her hand to touch her collarbones. Crusted blood.

Previous events scooted into her head. She gasped again and sat up abruptly, wincing at the protesting throb of pain in her ribcage.

"Awake," said a cold voice.

She started, and faced her sensei. "Hai, sensei," she murmured, her eyes downcast and unsure of what to say. She felt indignant and angry at his treatment of her of recent, but was so used to the submissive attitude that one should have to their sensei that she forced herself not to say anything rash. However, she couldn't stop herself from asking why, at least.

"I made a mistake, Gaara-sensei," she said in a low voice, "And for that I apologize. There was no point in shedding blood, whether it was mine or not." She had surprised herself by her own unshaken voice.

The red-haired man stared coldly at her, and then stood, and walked to the window, his back turned to her. "There is no point to life," he replied flatly.

She cocked her head and stared at him curiously. "There is!" she said, and then blushed at her own forwardness. "I…I mean, there's love and friends and happiness, isn't there?" she stammered.

His eyes were cold as glass when he turned to face her again. "Perhaps. I love nobody but myself," he said in a monotone that clearly stated that there was to be no more conversation on the matter.

"Come," he said, motioning to her to stand.

She did, and staggered slightly. He was already opening the door, and turned slightly in her direction. "I will accompany you to the garden. Temari is waiting."

_For what?_ she wondered.

However, he had already swept out of the room, and so she followed.

-

"Aw, there's no ramen left!" Naruto declared as if this was the greatest catastrophe to ever encounter mankind. He sullenly shut the door of the pantry, and sagged into a chair at the table. Hinata and Lee, who were also there, stared at him.

"Ah, Naruto-kun, your youthful humor inspires me!!" Lee declared at last in response to the ensuing silence. Naruto made a grouchy face at him, squinting like a child with sand in his eye.

"Bushy-brow, I wasn't joking."

"W-We could g-go and get more," Hinata suggested mildly, her lips slightly smiling in spite of herself. The blonde wolf never ceased to amaze her, in terms of humor or otherwise. He put his head on his folded arms, which rested on the table, and looked at her admiringly.

"That's a good idea!" he declared.

Lee put his hand up in the air, as if being called on in class. "Naruto-kun, I think that was just common sense, which the youthful Hinata-san possesses in great quantities! I do declare that she is remarkable!" he crowed. Hinata blushed nine shades of red, and tried without success to compose her face into an expression which would politely stop Lee from ranting on about her.

"Naa, Hinata-chan, I think you're better than ramen," Naruto muttered, yawning and stretching his arms. That statement made Hinata blush all over again.

"A-Arigato."

Naruto cocked his head at her. "For what?"

She looked at him with wide, innocent white eyes, and smiled brightly, bringing color into her usually pale features. "For b-being Naruto-kun." Naruto shrugged with an air of false modesty.

"Hinata-chan, I'm not _that_ great…"

"Oh, shut up, baka, we all know that you think you're the greatest thing that ever happened to the world and that you're someday going to be great and rich and all that," Ino interjected, walking into the kitchen and rolling her blue eyes.

Naruto scowled. "Maybe."

-

**A/N: Some fluffiness there! **


	27. Scarred

**A/N: OK, I have an idea for an upcoming Naruto fic, one that is NOT posted on my profile. I'm not absolutely sure if it will happen, so I won't elaborate, but watch out for it if you're looking for a fic to read! And there is not ONE but TWO quotes this chapter! –puffs up chest- The first applies mostly to Sakura and her thoughts of Sasuke, and the second applies to life and the Pack in general lol.**

**Alas, many of your questions will be answered in this chapter; at least, I hope that they will! –wink- Thanks for the reviews again…-bakes cookies and hands out- WAAA THERE'S NO COOKIES LEFT FOR ME! –wields machete and annihilates kitchen in unchecked fury-**

**TWO HOURS LATER:**

**Animal control arrives.**

**NOOOO! –gets dragged away-**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Feather Phase:**

**Scarred**

**-**

_As I was walking up the stair_

_I met a man who wasn't there._

_He wasn't there again today._

_I wish, I wish he'd stay away._

_-Hughes Mearns_

_Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy._

_-Nora Ephron_

-

The room was dark, filled with a thick kind of shadow that did not come in daylight. The windows, instead of revealing the outside terrain, instead reflected the inside of the room due to the coating of fog that had been stuck to it on the outside. The floorboards were patterned with eerie, black shapes with no name.

There was but one source of light, and that was the brilliantly shining full moon; it cast a silvery light, daunted by gray craters, onto the grounds of the Orphanage and all its surroundings. The celestial illumination caused everything to take on a new sort of aura.

_Wisp. _Pairs of bare feet rustled over the green grass, their sound of passage so faint that it might have been the wind. Crickets chirped protesting in the bushesagainst this new disturbance to their night singing.

A group of hooded figures in simple black cloaks, as if to imitate the Grim Reaper and shield themselves from the foggy chill at the same time, made their way quietly over the strip of public sidewalk. Their faces were hidden in the dark shadows, haunting and at the same time becoming. The only thing visible beneath any of the hoods was a strip of pale, soft skin—the delicate line of the jawbone, all perfectly shaped.

They stopped abruptly at a closure of trees at the roadside, which connected to the main forest, as if by signal, though nobody had uttered a single sound intelligible to the human ear. One of the figures raised the hooded head to peer at the wall of foliage, more out of confirmation than curiosity.

"It is here," said the figure, a voice cold and low-toned issuing form the hood with undying certainty. A murmur of assent passed through the rest of the group, though it might have just been the wind.

And then they were gone from the roadside.

They streaked like timeless wraiths through the foliage, going at a stunning speed and yet having not the slightest hesitancy of where to step, silent as the grave. Their hoods flew behind them, billowing out like great black flags of warning.

They stopped just as abruptly as they had at the edge of the trees, this time in a beautiful place.

A miniscule waterfall cascaded over a mound of rock overhanging a drop that would kill any human. The moon shown on the waving prairie-like grass, causing them to appear tipped in silvers and gold.

At this, the one that had spoken at the edge of the foliage reached up powerful white hands to pull down the black folds of his hood.

Hyuuga Neji's serious white eyes gazed upon the equally pale full moon, something deep with longing stirring within his usually frozen chest. One by one, the others also removed their shrouds. Tenten and Naruto stood on either side of him, with Ino, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Sakura grouped tightly behind them.

Silently, they proceeded to a place where the grass was slightly flatter than other places.

There, the seven simultaneously knelt, and with fingers so quick that were almost invisible, they made three hand signs, and drew the compass-like sign on Neji's back into the dirt.

"_We have come to say thank you and give our never-ending gratitude to you, Moon_," the soft chant flew from their lips at the same time.

Then, they sighed as one in release as they fell forward into wolves, the cloaks sliding off of their backs and the fur quickly growing in to cover their naked skin.

They all retained their normal wolfish appearance, all but for Neji, who appeared splendid and surreal.

His normally glossy grayed fur had patterns of intense complexity running through each hair, seemingly inked on in blue. It was the same pattern as on his back, and it shimmered magically under the moon. The wolf next to him, Tenten, turned her head.

"_The Mark is shining_," she noted.

"_The Moon has made it shine as a sign of her acceptance that I am still Alpha of this Pack_," Neji replied without surprise. Tenten's lips pulled back into a wolfish grin, (quite literally).

"_I'm glad_," she told him fervently. His wise pale eyes scrutinized her face for a moment, slightly startled by her tone of voice. "_It has been a long time since the Mark released you as a sign of the Moon's disapproval_," she explained hastily. "_I'm relieved that it hasn't happened again._"

Neji did not reply.

"_Neji-kun? Are you angry?_"

"_Iie._"

With that, they broke into a run.

The wind whistled in their fur. The speed was overwhelmingly wonderful, as if they were free from the world, free from their very skins. Tenten let loose a wild and joyful howl, and it was soon echoed by the others. They were caught up in a race of speed, though nobody had said so: it was evident in the way that each of them strained their legs to go faster and faster, and also the growls that Naruto was shooting at Neji, who was ahead of him.

At last, they slowed until they were in a tired lope, and morphed easily back to human form. Tenten's brown hair was stuck to her face as she panted heavily, her normal two-bun hairstyle exchanged for a loose ponytail that had come undone when she had shifted. The tips of her chocolate hair barely passed her shoulder blades, her cheeks flushed and dirty from the race. Her brown eyes sparkled. She tossed her head at Neji, who was sitting with both legs bent and his arms folded on top, the only one who had managed to look dignified. She was sitting in the same position, and laughed.

"I beat you," she declared.

He turned the full angry extent of his pale eyes on her. He looked about ready to challenge her statement, but that wasn't how it came out. He glared at her, and then said stiffly, "You were the fastest."

Tenten smiled. "Arigato, Neji-kun. You've never admitted that before."

He stood, dusting his simple long shorts off. "This is the first time that it has been the truth." She scowled.

"I've beaten you before!"

"I do not believe so."

"Hyuuga Neji, I have run faster than you before this!" she said, only half-heartedly arguing and knowing that it was pointless. He did not speak again, perhaps deeming her argument unworthy of carrying on, and touched her head lightly as he passed. It was one of their childhood ways of letting the other know that they didn't want to fight anymore.

Naruto was scuffing the dirt with his shoe, a cloud over his features. "I lost again," he muttered.

"T-That's alright. Y-You can t-try again next t-time," Hinata said, laughing slightly at his disappointment. He brightened slightly at this, and tried to flex his muscles without anybody noticing.

-

"Temari-san, may I ask why you need to see me?" Matsuri asked with a bowed head.

Temari stood in the shadow of the same tree where Naruto had fallen, her figure half hidden in shadow and adding a sinister touch to the spiked edges of her blonde ponytails. She stepped out from this protective darkness and smirked at the younger female.

"What my little brother did to you…was it only because of your mistake?"

Matsuri's eyes widened. "I…I think so," she answered truthfully.

Temari's smirk grew more pronounced. She peered at Matsuri's eyes. "You're telling the truth," she decided, talking mostly to herself. "Then you really don't know?"

"Know?" Matsuri echoed, extremely confused.

"Gaara doesn't react well to love," said Temari off-handedly.

"Love?" Matsuri echoed again, growing more and more lost by the minute.

"Hai, hai, Matsuri…he hurt you because he can't handle the idea of ever loving anybody again," she said softly. "I think he thought that if he hurt you as a proof of his separation from relationships, it would make him sure of himself again."

Matsuri swallowed. "So Gaara-sensei…"

"Loves you, yes," said Temari.

-

A picture frame.

It was made of a silvery metal-like substance, with names written in Sharpe all around the edges. Sakura brushed her fingertips against these names, all of them so familiar and comforting.

_Ino. Hope your forehead shrinks._

_Tenten will PWN Lee…_

_Hyuuga Hinata_

Among these familiar signings, there were those of Neji's, Shikamaru's, even Naruto's…Tsunade's was up in the corner. Even Kakashi had managed to sign it without anything perverted added in. Lee's had a drawing of a heart next to it. She fought back the urge to laugh, or to gag. She carefully averted her eyes from one scrawled signature in the right lower corner, written in red Sharpe, and fatal to read.

Instead, she traced the happy faces framed in the photograph in the middle. Ino was in the center, as usual. She was winking ostentatiously and flipping her hair back. Neji stood like some sort of full-color stone statue, looking cold and like he had something stuck up his butt. She giggled slightly. Tenten was giving Neji devil horns.

Her eyes softened slightly as she traced the contour of _his _face, standing under a tree in the corner of the picture, his usually indifferent features in a notable scowl, his arms crossed. His onyx eyes were narrowed in annoyance, his black hair in the usual disarray. "Sasuke-kun," she mouthed his name.

A tear landed on the photo and formed a bubble around her own figure in the picture.

-

"Tenten!"

The said Weapons Mistress flinched as Ino called her name and dashed out into the backyard. She sprang back from Lee's arms and tucked her hands behind her back, her face bright red.

"Are you DANCING with LEE?!" Ino screeched, looking purple from holding back the need to laugh hysterically and roll around on the floor, or to puke. Tenten scowled, her face still beet red, while Lee nodded enthusiastically.

"I'm just teaching him how to waltz," she explained grouchily. "He wants to ask Sakura out on a date."

"And you're helping him…why?" Ino asked, raising an eyebrow and looking back and forth between the two.

"Well…" Tenten fidgeted. "Kiba and Gai put him on a bet that Sakura would send him flying out of a second-story window if he even tried to ask her out, and I thought I'd give him a little booster." She paused. "After all, he'll need it," she whispered to Ino. The blonde took one look at Lee attempting to break dance to a rap song that had just come on over the portable radio that they were using, and nodded.

"I agree."

-

Hyuuga Neji was not buying it.

"I would think that you have better uses for your time," he commented dryly, his arms folded easily and his eyebrow raised. Tenten fidgeted on the chair opposite him, glaring balefully at his stoic expression.

"As a matter of fact, I don't, and Lee is so nice about sparring with me…I figured I could just do him a favor. I suppose you wouldn't know anything about friendships," she muttered back, blowing a strand of loose brown hair back from her forehead. She plucked at the collar of her shirt, the familiar pink Chinese top.

Neji's white eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. "You enjoy spending time with this 'Green Beast'?" His tone sounded almost incredulous, and with good reason too.

Tenten paused. "Well…not _really_, but he does have a certain charm. Lee's never been mean to me. He's so naïve," she rolled her eyes. "He's actually a pretty nice person once you get past all the 'flower of youth' crap."

"Hn," said the Hyuuga.

Tenten, for the first time, noticed his stiff countenance, and smirked. "Jealous?"

"Tenten, do not accuse me of such things," he replied coldly. "I am merely doing things for the good of the Pack."

She rolled her eyes again. "Right. Everything you do is for the good of the Pack."

"I am the Alpha. It is my duty," he said. She snorted.

"You would have me do otherwise," he said, letting it sound like a statement rather than a question and raising his eyebrow at her. She shrugged, a tiny smile on her lips.

"Well, you used to be so different, Neji-kun, when we were little…you were so _happy_ and sweet…sometimes I miss the old you, is all that I'm trying to say. Ever since you became Alpha, you've changed a lot. Sometimes I feel like you've forgotten all the good times."

His expression didn't change as he gazed at her thoughtfully and her frustrated expression, trying to get him to understand her point.

"I have not forgotten," he said at last. "I will never forget."

-

**A/N: Some fluffiness there! Please review!**


	28. Agreement

**A/N: Thanks for the encouraging reviews! –does a happy dance- Writing is so fun, especially when I'm doing it for enjoyment and not just because I have to, like in school. This fiction is fun!**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Heart Phase:**

**Agreement**

**-**

_It takes hundreds of nuts to hold a car together, but it only takes one of them to scatter it all over the highway._

_-Evan Esar_

-

"This cannot continue," said one irked Hyuuga Neji.

(Alright, so we can all admit to the fact that it is impossible to irk Hyuuga Neji, simply because of the fact that he simply CANNOT be irked. At this moment, he was merely…disgruntled.)

Subaku no Gaara, looking amazingly out of place as he leaned forward towards the other Pack leader while sitting on a wooden chair with hearts carved in it, his hands folded in his lap, leered with all his teeth showing. "I see no reason for it not to continue," he lisped, enjoying the fact that Neji was close to whacking him in the jaw.

"Subaku no Gaara," Neji said, still managing a calm voice. "This was originally our land, which we have mercifully allowed you and your fellow comrades to make use of these past months. As you have violated this hospitality by attacking one of our Pack, it is of a mandatory rule that you must leave." His cold eyes probed Gaara's face, and then added, "Immediately."

Gaara only sneered, leaning back again into a normal sitting position, his arms folded and the black lines around his eerily shining green eyes only serving to give him even more of a creepy aura. "And if I refuse?" he drawled.

Neji's eyes narrowed. "Then we will be forced to drive you out by force."

Gaara's lips drew up into what might have been a smile on a normal person, though on his emotionless face, it might have passed as a contorted smirk. "You believe that you are strong enough to do so? That…you have enough blood to spare?" he taunted, and Neji watched as he flexed his fingers.

"I do," Neji said coldly, unflustered.

Gaara's smirk grew wider. "Hyuuga…Neji," he lisped. He leaned forward again. "It is very easy…for these claws of mine," he elongated his nails until they were a frightful length and quite yellow, "to tickle the throat of that brown-haired girl that you are so very fond of, now wouldn't it?" he said easily, as if talking about the weather. When Neji's face did not change at the threat, he raised his eyebrows slightly.

"You believe it to be an empty threat?" he asked.

Neji's expression remained aloof. "On the contrary, I believe that Tenten has nothing to fear from one such as yourself."

Gaara's face stretched into a sadistic grin, and then he laughed, laughed horribly as if he might never stop. He did stop, however, and rather abruptly. It was inhumane, the way that he looked at Neji now.

"You are overconfident," he observed.

"Iie, merely informed of my subordinate's abilities," Neji replied.

"That girl…could not survive an encounter with me," Gaara leered, and nothing about his elongated claws contradicted this statement. Anybody would have fully believed the killing intent in his eyes, the lust for blood that spilled into his words.

Neji's eyes did narrow this time, and his hands tightened into fists. "In that case…" he said just as slowly as Gaara had been speaking, "I will have to kill you before you could harm her."

-

"We've got to leave, Gaara!" Kankurou wailed. "They outnumber us two to one, so if it turned into a fight, we'd be butchered!" In his panic at the prospect of a full-blown brawl, he was not even nervous of contradicting his brother's ideas.

Temari rolled her eyes, but did not supply an opinion. On one hand, she was not too excited about the idea of fighting the other Pack, which was larger, stronger, and considerably filled with more agile fighters; one the other, she was not apt to leave either: the idea of leaving Shikamaru was something she was not going to embrace willingly.

Matsuri sat quiet, also, on the edge of her bed and next to Temari, watching as Gaara brooded silently, sitting on the edge of the bed across the isle of the dormitory, his green eyes impossible to read.

"I will not back down," he said finally.

"Gaara…" Kankurou panicked.

"He's right," Temari finally spoke up, feeling a gut-wrenching pain as she did so. "We can't fight them, Gaara," she added on to clarify who's side she was on. "It would be suicide, and once you're dead, who cares who's got the most territory?"

Matsuri bowed her head slightly. "It would be wise to leave, Gaara-sensei," she said quietly.

Gaara faced each of his Pack in turn, none of which were eager to face him. "I want this territory," he said slowly. "It is much better situated than any other that we might have found…"

"Yes, but there are many that are almost as good!" Temari pleaded. "Gaara, we are only four: we do not need much. We will leave silently, without argument…" She couldn't believe what she was saying herself, though it was the right decision. Temari was usually the one who was all for violence and a good fight, especially with uneven numbers. She did not know what it was that intimidated her about this Pack…

No, that was a lie.

The idea of having to pit herself against Shikamaru scared her, scared her more than she was willing to admit to anybody. The idea of leaving him was almost as bad, but so long as there would be no fighting, she could live through it. After all, she could always come back someday to see him again…

Gaara fell into silence, and then said slowly, "I will consider it." Kankurou, Temari, and Matsuri all nearly fell backwards in shock. Gaara had never really given any of them their fair say in matters like this before, and even the possibility that he might back down was really very strange to them.

Kankurou breathed a sigh of relief.

-

"So they're leaving?" Ino asked excitedly, looking so excited as to be beside herself and her eyes shining so brightly that they glinted. Shikamaru sighed.

"Yes, troublesome woman, for the last time. Are you deaf?" he asked. His expression was the exact opposite of Ino's: dull and like there was nothing left to live for. Ino's expression fell slightly as she looked at her friend's depressed facial features. Next to him sat Sakura, looking equally dejected, (though admittedly, Sakura could care less about the other Pack staying or leaving: she was too out-of-it to be doing much celebrating.)

She took a seat next to her childhood friend, rolling her eyes. "You're thinking of Temari, aren't you?" she asked, sounding accusing. Shikamaru fidgeted slightly.

"I thought you said you didn't care!" he shot back.

"Well, I lied," Ino said saucily. They refused to look at each other for a moment more before Shikamaru sighed.

"Sorry."

"That's okay," Ino said stiffly. Sakura promptly pretended that there was an interesting spot on the ceiling.

"How can I _live_?" he asked to himself, groaning, and falling forward until his head was in his hands. "Ino, _how?_" he questioned miserably. Ino stared uncertainly at him and the spiky pineapple-like ponytail that he always wore his hair in, her wide blue eyes swimming with confusion.

"Aren't you being a bit dramatic?" she said finally.

He looked up at her, his features composed again into their normal lazy expression. "Ino…" he muttered. "I've never come close to this type of agony, and you're asking if I'm trying to play up my acting skills."

"Sorry," she said quickly.

He stared at her, at her innocent blue eyes and her troublesome blonde hair, and the determination to try and make him happy and cheerfully kill Temari at the same time. Even with this strange countenance, she enumerated a sort of pure beauty that he had seen in few females, human or not. He wondered silently, what if Temari had never come along? Would I be sitting with Ino in some fancy restaurant right now, complaining about how troublesome she is and secretly glad that she's been my best friend for so long? Would I love her? He felt a twinge of guilt, however small it was, that he was hurting his best friend so badly.

"Ino…sorry," he said.

"Eh?" Ino replied, completely lost. Sakura smiled slightly at her two friends and their complicated relationship, choosing to return to earth.

He thought it too troublesome to say it again when he prodded him, so they both subsided into a peaceful silence.

-

"Whee!!"

Naruto picked up Hinata, spun her around, and sunk them both down into the grass. Hinata was so red she looked about ready to fry an egg on her face, her white eyes all the more contrasted against her face. She couldn't feel her limbs: her knees had turned to jell-O. Tenten and Lee, who were also in the backyard, were laughing their heads off at Naruto and Hinata's expressions as they sat under the tree, both of them looking like they weren't exactly sure where they were, (though this expression frequently appeared on the blonde's face.)

"Kiss her, Naruto, you baka!" Tenten gurgled, balled up in laughter at the aghast expression on Naruto's face. Hinata fell over, out cold.

"HINATA-CHAN! WAKE UP!!" Naruto shook her by the shoulders in wild alarm, staring accusingly at Tenten as if this were all her fault, (though it was). Rock Lee merely smiled dreamily, looking at the young couple.

"Ah, the youthfulness of love! It is almost as youthful as my passion for Sakura-san!" he declared. Tenten, sensing that this was supposed to be a real compliment coming from Lee, patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm sure it is," she reassured him, trying to stop laughing.

Naruto finally got some water from inside and poured it out all over Hinata's face. She blinked blearily, and sat up with some difficulty. "N-Naruto-kun?" she said, confused as she stared at the blonde wolf who was in her face.

She caught sight of Tenten and Lee, and her face flushed such a bright red that it was rather amusing for the two friends to watch. Naruto, whom she had her back to, could only appear confused at their laughter. He nervously scratched the back of his head.

"Na, Hinata-chan…Tenten says that I should…" he trailed off, he too turning an interesting shade of red. "…that I should…" He made a face, "_kiss_ you!" he finally spat out.

Hinata flushed even redder. Tenten smirked.

"Um…a-ano…" Hinata stuttered, at a loss for words. Naruto smiled brightly, though his face was still red.

"Well, I wouldn't mind," he said, for the first time in his life actually managing to sound like he was catching on to what he was supposed to do when he liked Hinata and Hinata liked him. With that, he hugged Hinata and kissed her happily on the mouth.

Hinata nearly fainted again, but managed to enjoy the moment while it lasted. Tenten whistled and clapped, finally properly satisfied that Naruto was being a gentleman to her friend. Lee smiled vaguely.

Naruto smiled widely when they broke apart. "You taste like ice cream!" he declared. Tenten sweatdropped.

"Is he _really_ a werewolf?"

-

"Tenten."

The brown-haired Weapons Mistress turned curiously as Neji walked towards her, her eyebrows raised. "Yes?"

"Be careful," he said, walking until he was level with her. Tenten rolled her eyes at her friend, feeling pretty annoyed.

"Why are you always telling me that?" she complained. "I'm not five years old anymore! I'm not going to break my neck falling out of a tree or anything." Neji's expression did not change throughout her little rant. Instead, his eyes seemed to repeat his message: be careful.

"Neji-kun, I can take care of myself," she told him for what felt like the hundredth time to ease his mind. Neji considered for a moment.

"Subaku no Gaara may be trying to hurt you," he said slowly. "It would be wise to take extra caution."

Tenten was surprised, but she wasn't about to show it. "Gaara?"

"I…told him that he must leave today," Neji admitted.

"Ah, so that's it," said Tenten quietly. Then she smirked up at her friend. "You were worried about me, weren't you!"

Neji sighed at her constant attempts to provoke him. "You are implying that I would stand by and let you get mauled."

"No, I'm saying that you were worried about me."

He paused. "I was."

She smiled. "See? You _do_ have some human emotion in there after all! Good for you, Neji-kun!" Neji stared at her incredulously, not exactly liking this talk about his psychology when her life was the one in danger.

"Tenten…" he warned. She hugged him.

Tenten threw her arms around his middle, including his arms, and just hugged him tightly in gratitude. "Thanks," she said, her voice slightly muffled into his shirt. Neji was extremely stiff all over, not used to hugging as he was. He had to admit…it was a nice change. He coughed.

"Your welcome."

-

**A/N: YAY FLUFFINESS!!! Have you ever had one of those days where you want to take up a machine gun and shoot at the world? Yeah, I've had those days too. Have you had a day where you're not sure whether you want to strangle or hug your friends, your sister, your parents, your crush, and your cat? I've had that too. But not today. Today I'm HAPPY!!! (Ok, that was just the weirdest talk ever. O.o)**


	29. Remembrance

**A/N: **_**The room is dark. Suddenly, bright disco lights spring up all over. There is a figure in the middle of the dance floor, a bright purple, sparkly tophat tipped over his face, in a sparkling suit of the same color, and looking rather dashing. He looks up at you and…**_

_**It's not a he. It's a she. Who is she?**_

_**It's **_**meeeeeeee!!**

**Yes, that's me: purple tuxedo, machine gun and all…or I could just be the average person. You make the decision.**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Heart Phase:**

**Remembrance**

**-**

"_Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."_

_-Mel Brooks_

-

"Temari, listen to me!"

Temari crossed her arms and glared at Shikamaru. "Look, it's not my fault that we have to leave, alright? What Gaara's decided is what goes, and I'm not crazy enough to pit myself against my little brother."

"Troublesome woman, you're the one who begged him to go!" he retorted.

"It's the only way!" Temari shrieked. "I can't fight you, Nara Shikamaru! I would rather go than hurt you!"

"You're already hurting me," Shikamaru muttered. Next thing he knew, Temari had walked forward and cupped his face between her hands, kissing him. After about two seconds, he decided to kiss her back. His hands slid down to her waist and tugged slightly to pull her closer. She obliged, snaking her arms around his neck. He pushed her against one of the bed poles, one of his hands going to her hair.

After several more blissful moments, they broke apart. "Heh," Shikamaru smirked. "Is that your way of getting me to forgive you?" Temari smirked back.

"Maybe. Am I forgiven?"

Shikamaru considered. "That depends…" he said slowly. Temari raised her eyebrows.

"On what, exactly?"

He kissed her again and she obliged happily, pressing herself closer to him, knowing full well that by tomorrow this time, she would have left and they would most likely not be seeing each other again for a very long time. He leaned sideways slightly to kiss her jawbone. She sighed.

"Just don't forget me, alright?" she said playfully. He smirked.

"You think you're the type of woman that I can forget? You're too troublesome for that," he muttered. She actually smiled at this.

"Ah, troublesome-this, troublesome-that," she complained, though only half-heartedly. "I suppose you'd say me leaving is troublesome too."

"It is," he replied honestly.

"What about the blonde girl?" she inquired, this time her voice slightly tentative. Shikamaru pulled back to see her face fully, his slightly confused.

"Ino?" he echoed.

"Yeah. She likes you, right?" Temari questioned. "It's just a little obvious," she added on sarcastically. Shikamaru sighed.

"Ino's my best friend, Temari. But nothing more." Temari smiled slightly up at him.

"I thought so. But I had to be sure, you know? I'll miss you," she said, though her voice wasn't sappy or tearful like it might have been. It sounded more like, _If you don't come to visit me then I WILL FIND YOU and strangle you, Nara Shikamaru!_

He laughed. "Yade, yade…"

"Troublesome woman," they said at the same time. Temari smirked.

"You're too predictable."

-

Night fell.

The stars found Shikamaru and Temari sitting outside under the tree in the front yard where so many things had been set into motion. They sat staring up at the glittering cosmos, each lost in their own heart wrenching thoughts of tomorrow.

"I'm going to die," Temari finally groaned, banging her head back against the tree trunk.

"Heh," Shikamaru grinned. "You'll miss me that much?"

Temari slapped him on the arm. "Yes! Seriously…" she trailed off, staring at him through the darkness that separated the two of them. Shikamaru sighed, shaking his head. They leaned forward and kissed easily, his hand around her waist under her shirt, their legs intertwined.

"Temari, you troublesome woman," he smirked. "I'll miss you much more than you'll miss me. Ino's been having a field day."

Temari raised her eyebrows. "Your friend's not the friendliest of people."

Shikamaru laughed. "Ino's a bit exuberant, but she's okay most of the time."

"I think she's a preppy little-" she stopped at Shikamaru's expression. "What, you don't think so too?" She laughed. "Seriously, I thought you would figure out that she's clingy and that you're above her."

"Temari," he said slowly. "Ino is perfectly fine. She may be troublesome at times…but we've been through a lot together. She's much more than she seems at first glance. Don't insult her."

Temari rolled her eyes. "Why not?"

"Because she's important to me, just like you are!" Shikamaru exclaimed, his usually laid back expression slightly more energetic than usual. Temari drew back slightly at this outburst.

"I can't see why," she muttered. He stood abruptly.

"I'm going inside."

-

"Shika? Are you okay?" said a curious Ino as she poked her head into the living room. Shikamaru was flipping channels lazily, though he was scowling slightly. She sat down next to him when he didn't answer.

"You still upset that she's leaving?" she questioned, guessing at the obvious.

Shikamaru sighed. "I don't know how to deal with this."

"Well, you could follow her," Ino said slowly, though every word of this particular suggestion seared her tongue. "There's…nothing…stopping you," she said quietly.

He smiled slightly at her. Ino, panicked that this meant he liked her suggestion, clenched her hands into fists and widened her eyes.

"Or…maybe you could get her to stay here?" she suggested, though this particular suggestion also did not seem altogether pleasant.

Shikamaru sighed. "I'm not talking about that."

Ino blinked. "Oh? Then what are we talking about?"

"Temari hates you," he said. "You hate Temari. I love both of you."

She laughed. "Temari wouldn't be too happy to hear that you love two women." He sighed and pushed her.

"Ino! You know what I mean. You as my best friend, her as…" he sucked in a breath.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Ino said quickly. He glanced at her casually out of the corner of his eye.

"But you're not constantly insulting her," he observed. "Well, at least not out loud. You don't like her, but you don't try to kill her either." Ino fidgeted slightly at this, remembering Tenten's attempt to beat up Temari, (granted, that had been a bluff, but…). "You should hear the things she says about you…"

Ino smiled grimly. "I'm sure they're wonderful."

Shikamaru fell back into the couch. "I love her, Ino."

Ino felt icy cold on the inside. She knew that Shikamaru didn't like her, but hearing him say that he loved Temari, with that tone of voice…it wasn't something that she could handle very well. She gulped to keep from crying right then and there.

"But…if she doesn't stop hating you so much, I think it might be better if she left," he said slowly.

Ino blinked rapidly. Two, then three times. Then, "…._what_?!!" she squeaked.

Shikamaru stared at her in surprise to her outburst. "I said…if Temari left, maybe it would be better for you. I don't think I can take any more of being in the middle. Troublesome women," he muttered.

"I know what you said, but…" Ino shook her head. "Didn't you just say that you loved her? And you guys are always making out all over the place."

Shikamaru turned slightly red at this remark, but didn't comment on it. "It is out of my power of whether Temari will leave or stay already, regardless of my feelings," he said slowly. "It would be easier for me, for you, for the Pack and for Temari if I just…let go."

He closed his eyes. "Not that it's not troublesome."

"Shika…" Ino said gently, laying a hand on his shoulder. "You don't always have to be the one that gives up everything just to make other people happy. You don't have to do this for me."

"Don't flatter yourself, who said I was doing it just for you? I just said, it's for me and Temari and the Pack as well," he protested.

She smiled. "Right. But you still don't have to be so heroic, if it makes you sad."

He smiled back at her. "Ino…"

-

The next morning, the other Pack stood on a hill, one mile from the Orphanage. Neji's Pack stood at the bottom, looking up at them and squinting through the rays of a rising sun. "So they're really leaving, huh?" said Naruto softly, shielding his eyes. Tenten nodded next to him.

"Yeah. Kinda hard to believe."

Shikamaru and Temari were in the shade of the hill, apart from both of their Packs. Shikamaru's hands were in his pockets, Temari's folded across her chest. "I guess this is it, then," she said, her signature smirk on her face as usual. "I'll come back and visit, I suppose…" she said.

"Temari," he said softly. "I don't think that would be the best idea."

Her eyes widened slightly. "Nani? Why not?"

"I…I think it would hurt Ino," he said finally. Temari glared at him.

"You don't want to see me again just because of the blonde brat?" she said angrily, her hands now on her hips. Shikamaru gazed at her steadily, having not flinched even a bit and still seemingly relaxed.

"She's not a brat, Temari," he said calmly. "She is my best friend, and you do not respect that fact."

Temari dropped her head into her hands, and then looked back up at Shikamaru. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "I'll miss you…I love you, Nara Shikamaru."

Shikamaru's voice broke slightly. "I love you, Temari. But maybe it's for the better if we don't meet again…for the Pack's sake, our own sake…and for Ino's sake."

"Yeah," she said, impressing Shikamaru by her calm outward appearance. He felt like he was about to shatter into a million pieces.

The last of his self restraint broke down, and he took her into his arms. Her arms encircled him tightly, her forehead pressed into his shoulder. He tipped her head up, and pressed his lips gently to hers. They stayed like that for a time, his fingers tracing patterns on her cheek, before breaking apart.

"Shikamaru…" she whispered. "I think that I better be going now."

"Mendokusai," he tried to say in a normal voice, and somewhat succeeded. Reluctantly, he let her go. She jogged to the top of the hill. Four figures were now silhouetted against the golden glow of the rising sun. They turned, and began to walk down the other side. Gaara's arm was around Matsuri's shoulders. Kankurou was walking with a sort of strange, humble shuffle. The fourth and last turned to wave slightly back at him. He raised his hand in an answering farewell.

"Temari," he murmured.

-

"You okay?" Ino asked as Shikamaru and her walked side by side back to the Orphanage. The others had gone on ahead, Shikamaru had wanted to stay for a while at the hill. She had volunteered to keep him company.

He nodded.

"You sure?" she eyed him skeptically. "You look kind of purple."

"Mendokusai," he said irritably. She laughed.

"You really didn't have to do that for me. I know how much you care about her," she said softly. "I'm not worth that kind of sacrifice. It was just name-calling."

"You are," he argued, still walking determinedly forward, (he _would_ get back to the Orphanage without breaking down). "It was much more than name-calling, though that is perhaps only what she did…she would have left anyway, and risking meeting again would violate both Packs' peace. And…" he paused slightly, "I'm beginning to think that maybe we were never supposed to love each other."

She eyed him incredulously. "Are you kidding me? With that look of utter depression on your face, anybody would believe that she was your wife!"

He grimaced. "Ino, you are my best friend and Temari refused to give you a chance. I've known you much longer, you should deserve much more than I give you," he reasoned with some of his brilliant genius logic. She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I would've loved some of that 'you deserve better' stuff when you two were snogging each other in the dorm."

He flicked her in the side of the head. She scowled.

"Alright, alright, I was just kidding…since it's already done, I suppose that I can't keep chiding you about not doing it…anyway, thanks," she said softly.

"Troublesome woman. What are you thanking me for?"

"For giving up the love of your life just for me! Well, granted, she was the _only_ love that you've ever had," she said.

"How many times do I have to say it? Troublesome as you are and all these situations may be, you are worth anything," he grumbled. "You've done a lot for me. It's time I return the favor."

Ino blushed prettily pink at these words. "Wow. You know how to flirt," she remarked.

"That wasn't flirting!" he said. "That was the truth."

Ino smiled. "Well, then I owe you another thank you, I suppose. I still can't believe that you just told Temari that you couldn't ever see each other again…"

He winced. "I don't want to talk about that. It hurts enough already."

Ino fell silent. "Oh. Sorry."

"That's alright. I suppose you have some rights to celebrate now that she's gone," he sighed. "I, on the other hand…" he trailed off, though Ino only knew too well what he meant.

-

**A/N: A very long, long fluffy chapter full of important events in the plotline, as well as plenty of fluff of ShikaTema and ShikaIno too!!! Haha!! I'm a genius!!**

**Anyways, those three rock. I like both pairings, so…heh heh.**


	30. Skill

**A/N: Bwahahaha. Don't worry, there will be action coming up eventually. I'm not the greatest fight-scene writer, so even if there is I'm not sure if it will get a good response, but there should be some action.**

**As to the whole ShikaInoTema thing, it COULD still go either way. I know that there's people supporting both pairings to this fic, so I'll disappoint somebody whichever way I go. As to that, I apologize if anybody feels the need to squish my head when I finally do decide who ends up with who—I really am trying my best.**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Heart Phase:**

**Skill**

**-**

"_I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. But pigs treat us as their equals."_

_-Sir Winston Churchhill_

-

"Fold your hands," said Neji.

Tenten obliged, curling her fingers around each other until it was almost impossible to discern which hand was which. Neji shook his head almost minimally, and demonstrated with his own hands: two fingers over two fingers of the other hand. Tenten mimicked him. "Are you sure that this is a healing seal?" she asked doubtfully.

"I will teach you the word," he said in response. Then he let loose a guttural snarl which changed into a sort of mournful yip in the middle. Tenten tried to copy him again, but her tongue seemed to stick to the roof of her mouth. She couldn't pronounce it.

"It will take time," Neji told her. She scowled.

"I got the last one almost right away," she reminded him. He nodded.

"You are skilled."

Tenten laughed and shook her head. "Sakura is much better at this sort of thing. I just learn the necessary stuff. Sakura is just a bit…" she trailed off. "…saddened right now," she finished softly. Neji dropped his hands, which were still in the seal position.

"The Uchiha was free to go," he said matter-of-factly. Tenten looked at him skeptically.

"As much of a pain as he was, I would give anything for him to be back right now," she sighed. Neji's eyes narrowed slightly.

"You miss him," he stated.

Tenten almost laughed at his venomous expression. "Jealous again!" she taunted. Neji did not respond. "No, _I_ don't miss him, but he made the best in Sakura come out. Right now, she might as well be a rock for all the emotion that she shows. She used to be happier," Tenten admitted. She studied her friend. "Though I don't suppose you would know anything about not being a rock," she added.

Neji raised his eyebrows. Tenten scowled at him.

"Don't you have _any_ regrets about him leaving?" she asked, exasperated. "Even you admit that he was a skilled Beta. Besides, we've all been together so _long…_We're all free to leave whenever we please, but nobody would actually _do_ it, well, besides him."

"It is true that I will be hard pressed to ever meet a wolf as skilled as he," Neji said. It was about as much affection as he had ever shown for his black-haired Beta. Tenten smiled slightly.

"Don't get me wrong, Naruto's pretty good too…he's just, well…" She chuckled. "All I'm saying is that maybe his parents dropped him on his head as a baby."

Seeing that Tenten was fast loosing concentration on the task at hand, he took her hands and folded them into the seal position again. She blew a great sigh, rustling her bangs, and concentrated. This time, the word for the seal came out a little less garbled. She smiled a pleased smile, her head bent towards her hands.

She looked up, her brown eyes sparkling with delight and her face slightly pink from happiness. "Arigato, Neji-kun!" Neji's lips twitched slightly at the corners, though his face was otherwise emotionless.

"Tenten…" he started.

"Eh? Nani?" the Weapons Mistress answered, cocking her head slightly to the side.

"You have grown," he said finally. Tenten laughed.

"'Course I have, otherwise I'd still be three feet tall. That would suck."

He leaned forward slightly and touched her forehead with two of his fingers, brushing aside a strand of brunette hair that was in her eyes. Tenten flushed slightly, though her eyes were laughing.

"You have grown," he repeated, and this time Tenten knew what he meant.

-

"Do you want ramen?"

"No."

"Soda?"

"No."

"Red bean soup?"

"No."

"Paper?"

"To _eat_?"

"No, to read. Tsunada-baa-chan got it delivered today," said one happy blonde wolf as he held up the black and white newspapers to Nara Shikamaru's annoyed face. "The headlines are pretty interesting. Some French lady living in the city next to ours managed to chop of her toe with a cleaver and-"

"Mendouksai, baka!" Shikamaru snapped. "Leave me alone!"

Naruto scowled at his friend, waving his finger in the air. "Naa, Shikamaru…"

"Just _leave_," Shikamaru muttered. When the blonde showed no sign whatsoever of an intention to leave, he stood up himself, grumbling something unintelligible, and headed to the small room that served as their rehearsal room.

At the moment, a group of 7-year-old boys were using one of the walls to play racquetball. They had been laughing loudly before, but as soon as they realized that Shikamaru was there, they all abruptly fell quiet and ran out around him. The werewolves all seemed to have that sort of intimidating effect on people in general, even more so than the average teenager.

Absently, he picked up a maraca and tapped it gently against his finger as he stared at the ceiling, which was hopelessly plain and white.

"Bored?"

Shikamaru looked towards the door to see Ino and Sakura, both of them sipping water out of glasses and hair pulled back into ponytails. It was a warm day.

"This place is too quiet," he said in response, looking back towards the ceiling. Ino rolled her eyes conspiratorially to her pink-haired friend, who smiled reluctantly in response. A quiet minute passed with only the rice-grain sound of the maraca and the inconspicuous slurping of water.

"Give it a rest. No place can be quiet with Naruto living in it," Ino said, taking a seat in a chair. Sakura soundlessly pulled up another chair. She was appearing a lot more normal now.

"Shikamaru, why don't you go and do a sudoku or something?" she suggested. "Tsunade-sama got a newspaper, and I think there must be crossword puzzles in there that are pretty difficult." At mention of the newspaper, Shikamaru made a face, which Ino and Sakura were confused about, and shook his head.

"Crossword puzzles are easy," he said offhandedly.

"We could practice…" Ino said.

To their immense surprise, Shikamaru stood and picked up another maraca. "Yeah, let's do that." He had never willingly succumbed to anything that made him use percussion before, most likely in his life.

-

Hinata was reading a book.

It was a very good book; a novel to be more precise, and she was very fond of reading. Not only did it improve your vocabulary, vanishing into another fictional world when your own problems got bad was a therapy like no other. At this moment, she was not troubled at all, but rather a bit…well…

Hinata was on Cloud Nine.

She was actually having a lot of trouble concentrating on the words in the book, and was about to give it up as a bad job when a pair of arms hugged her from behind and lifted her clean out of her chair. She made a protesting squeak.

"Boo," said Naruto.

"Naruto-kun!" she squeaked again. "You're c-crushing my ribs!" He hastily let go. She sighed as she could breathe again. She turned around to face the blonde boy, her face very red. Thankfully, she could feel no symptoms of fainting.

"NARUTO-KUN!"

Lee rushed into the room so fast that he banged into Naruto, who in turn fell forward into Hinata. It was an awkward moment when they ended up kissing each other, both of their faces so red that it looked highly unhealthy. Lee paused and turned to look at them.

"AH! TIS THE YOUTHFUL NATURE OF LOOOVVVEEE!" he crooned, and fled back out of the room. They never even found out what he had wanted to talk to Naruto about.

-

"Shikamaru!" Ino called.

She bounded up the steps, and found him sitting in the middle of their dorm floor, playing a game of shogi with himself. She sighed, rolling her eyes, and plopped down across from him. He didn't look up. "What?"

"I brought you some brownie. Sakura and I decided to make some," she explained, placing a napkin with the chewy brown desert on it next to him. He glanced at it, and then back at his board.

"Thanks."

"Don't you _ever_ get hungry?" Ino complained, after he continued to play for another five minutes. He didn't look up this time either. He reached over and took a bite out of the brownie. She smiled in satisfaction.

"You want to play?" he motioned to the board, where he played both sides. She raised her eyebrows. He sighed and shook his head. "I suppose not," and continued with his game.

"Well, I've got to go. Promised Sakura and company that I'd go to the movies with them," Ino said airily. She leaned over and pecked Shikamaru's cheek, and bounded up before he could react, out the door in under a second. Shikamaru, still concentrating on his game, reached up a hand to touch where her lips had touched his skin. It burned like a brand under his hand.

-

"Haha, you should have seen his face!" Ino crowed.

Tenten sighed and stared up at the sky as they walked towards the largest local cinema. "I really don't see the point of you doing all of this unnecessary flirting. You're blonde, tall, and skinny. It's what every girl in the world wants to be." Ino laughed.

"That's exactly it, Tenten…I don't have everything that a girl could possibly want. Or, just what I want, and that's Shikamaru," she smirked.

"What m-movie are w-we going to s-see?" Hinata chirped, embarrassed by all the talk of flirting. Sakura glanced up at the lists of currently playing flicks, her green eyes searching for something good and not R-rated, (she had no stomach for anything that those particular ones had to offer.)

"Hmm, dunno. Not many good ones playing right now, huh?" said Ino in response to Sakura's thoughts. The four of them continued to study the boards until they found a reasonably good movie to watch, and filed into the dark room with all the other popcorn-bearing people.

They settled comfortably into some clean chairs in the middle of the theater, about as close as you could get to the perfect seats. As the pre-commercials rolled on, Tenten leaned towards Hinata, and whispered, "So how's it going with Naruto?"

As expected, Hinata turned pink. In the dark, there wasn't much difference, but Tenten could sense her friend's slight discomfort. "T-Tenten-san!" Hinata protested.

"Chan," Tenten corrected.

"Oh, give it up, Tenten," Sakura laughed. "You know you'll never get anything out of Hinata here." Hinata smiled at her pink-haired friend in relief, and tucked a strand of raven hair behind her ear. Tenten grinned and went quiet, relieved to hear Sakura laughing like a normal person.

Ino raised her eyebrows suggestively in the safe darkness of the theater. "Tenten, how's Neji?"

This time, it was Tenten who flushed. "He's perfectly fine, and you know that."

"You're right, I do. Anything juicy happen?" she prodded, chuckling at Tenten's horrified expression.

"Ino!" she growled.

"Alright, alright, I get it," Ino waved her hands in the air. "Everybody can tell that he likes you best."

"We've just known each other longest," Tenten shot back.

"No, I mean _likes_ you best," Ino emphasized.

"Ino, that's stupid. Hyuuga Neji doesn't 'like' people. His ego's the size of…of…" she struggled to think of something big enough.

"Yeah, we get the point," said Sakura quickly. Tenten sighed.

"Do you? Neji-kun isn't like a normal person, as much as we're not exactly _normal_…but he's so detached from the world that I worry about him sometimes," she admitted. Ino and Sakura smiled sympathetically. Hinata touched her friend's hand.

_Neji-kun…_

-

**A/N: A shorter chapter…**


	31. Sunlight

**A/N: Woah! I've never had such nice, long, or in-depth reviews before! –cries of happiness- Thank you, oh kind merciful people!! Also, I'm glad that you liked the quote: Winston Churchhill's sayings were always my favorite. He's a great speechwriter and makes good jokes! Yes, I know that you all miss Sasuke…(I do too, and this is my story, lol). And that suggestion with Tenten, Neji, and Gaara was good, but I don't really think something like that will happen in this plotline…I've got some stuff planned for them already! (But suggestions are always appreciated! Really!)**

**Well, kudos to people who review on this fiction, because you guys make my day! And to those of you freeloaders who just read and leave…shame. That is all.**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Trick Phase:**

**Sunlight**

**(2 Weeks Later)**

-

"_Hell is full of musical amateurs."_

_-George Bernard Shaw_

-

Giggle. Squeal. STOMP. BOOM.

"Ino-san, you l-look perfectly l-lovely!" Hinata stuttered. Ino twirled around in front of the other girls, her blue eyes sparkling. She was in a deep purple kimono with white blossoms all over, and a lavender obi. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. She smiled broadly.

"You think so?"

Tenten snorted. "How can you _not_ look beautiful? You just spent two hours in the bathroom applying make up. _Two hours_. Honestly…"

"Well, you don't look so bad yourself, Tenten," Ino smiled. Tenten was in a dark green kimono tied with a pale pink obi. She laughed.

"I put this on fifteen minutes ago, Ino. I spent the last two hours training, like a person who doesn't waste their time with those weird mascara bottles. Besides, Hinata looks much better than me."

Hinata turned pink when Tenten smiled at her. Indeed, the raven-haired girl was a sight: her kimono was pale sky blue and tied with a royal blue obi. Her pale eyes sparkled with hidden delight, contrasted against her flushed face. She fidgeted with her fingers, looking down at the floor.

"Well, we're all justified to be pretty," Ino said huffily. "It's the Hina Matsuri festival, and I'll be darned if we have to go looking ugly."

"Where's Sakura?" Tenten cut in.

"In here," called a voice from the bathroom. All eyes turned to the pink-haired girl. Her green eyes were unusually wide and vulnerable, her pink hair done up in the back. Her expression was amazingly child-like, her voice a little shaky. She had on a pink kimono and a dark brown obi which contrasted nicely with her pale complexion.

"Forehead-girl, you're beautiful," Ino smiled. "Why the long face?"

"Oh…it's nothing," Sakura murmured. They all looked at her curiously. A moment later, they were departing the orphanage along with Tsunade and all of the other girls both younger, and a few older, than themselves. In all of their hands were clutched small, intricately made dolls.

They walked through the streets for a long time, drawing stares. The procession of kimono-clad girls finally reached a field next to the place where a river wound through the town. Gently, one by one, they set down their dolls, and stood in silence as the river whooshed by.

-

"C'mon, let's go!" Ino shouted.

The four of them were following the rest of the girls to a series of tents set up in the streets. The festival was huge, with many people already there and browsing among the vendor's stalls. Jiraiya was happily woman-gazing, downing sake like it was the purest of water. Tsunade took a seat next to him, and ordered up some alcohol for herself too.

From there, the entire group of girls separated into smaller groups with their friends, chattering and gazing at all the amazing sights.

"Hey, I'm going to go and see the other end of the festival, OK?" said Tenten. "I'll meet you guys here later." With that, she disappeared into the growing crowd, having to say "excuse me" a lot. At last, she reached the end of the tents after much pushing and shoving, and discovered a large crowd gathered around a girl who was playing the koto.

"Tenten."

She jumped and turned to see Neji, Naruto, and Shikamaru, the latter two looking rather sheepish.

"Eh? What are you guys doing here?" she questioned.

"Well, we thought that we'd come to watch the festivities," Shikamaru sighed. "Besides, there's nothing else to do. We're not the only men here, you know," he added on.

Tenten glanced around. It was true. A lot of fathers, husbands, uncles, brothers, and lovers alike were present. Now that most families had set out their dolls, they were enjoying the festivals around town, though this was by far the largest one.

"The others are not with you," Neji observed.

"I'll go find them," said Naruto before Tenten could reply. He grabbed Shikamaru's arm and pulled him, grumbling, into the crowd.

"Your appearance is lovely," Neji said stiffly. Tenten smiled happily.

"Thanks! When did you learn to compliment people?" she inquired, meaning it as a joke. The corners of Neji's lips twitched slightly upwards, and he laid a hand on Tenten's shoulder.

"You are the one who taught me."

She covered his hand with her own. "Yeah, that sounds about right," she said.

Suddenly, Neji stiffened. Tenten's nose twitched as she sniffed the air tentatively for any strange scents as to the reason of Neji's sudden tension. "Rogue wolf," she breathed out, her face suddenly a bloodless white.

"Come," Neji said, already pushing his way out of the crowd. Tenten followed hurriedly after him as fast as she could in the elaborate kimono that she was wearing, tripping once and nearly killing herself on the pavement. They rounded a corner, turned right, rounded another corner, turned left. She was seriously considering just morphing into a wolf when they found him.

The rogue wolf was _huge._ He had large scars running across his face, down his back, as if he had been beaten. His fur came in clumps of deep brown and tan. His eyes glinted a deadly gold, his lips surrounded by rabid foam. Tenten sucked in a breath. This one might be a bit tricky to deal with.

Neji fell forward almost immediately into his wolf form. He snarled, and lunged just as the other wolf ran forward. They met with jaws snapping, each trying to find the other's throat. "Neji-kun!" Tenten cautioned. Just in time: the other wolf's claws nicked the side of Neji's neck as he dodged.

The rabid wolf sensed an opening, and jumped up onto it's hind legs, raking Neji's side in four deep red gashes. Neji howled, and clawed his face. The other wolf finally backed off, and Neji jumped onto his back, his claws scrabbling as he struggled to find a hold. At last, his claws hooked into the fur ruff at the wolf's neck, and pinned him to the ground. Whimpering, the brown wolf rolled over and showed them his belly.

Neji backed off slightly.

Tenten's eyes widened a split second after she realized that the rogue wolf had not yet given up. "Neji-kun!" she warned for the second time. Neji did not hear her warning. The huge wolf jumped up and rammed into Neji, and the Pack Alpha stumbled. The big wolf rammed him again, and Neji fell sideways. His claws sunk deep this time as he clawed all the way across Neji's stomach. The great wolf howled, and then lay still.

Tenten screamed, and lunged forward into wolf form almost automatically. The other wolf, not expecting this, only barely turned before Tenten was on him, scratching and snarling. Her teeth sunk into the side of his neck.

He howled in pain, clawing wildly to get her off of him, but she held on stubbornly until he finally managed to ram her off of him. He jumped at her, but she dodged and came in on the other side, sinking her teeth once more into his neck. This time, she hit the right spot. He whimpered, spasmed, and then turned back into human form and did not move again.

She morphed back into human form and stumbled forward until she sat next to Neji. He was human-looking again also. His side, stomach, and chest all had ugly red welts and wounds all over. His face was bruised and blood dripping down his chin. His clothes were ruined.

Tenten shakily put her hands together in the healing seal, and there was a slight glow as she pressed her fingers to his ribs. Nothing much happened, though the wounds did look a tad fainter. She instead slung his arm over her shoulder, and began to walk.

-

"Oh my _God_, Tenten! What the Hell happened?!"

The seven of the Pack were out the side door of the Orphanage, a fair way away from hearing distance and safe enough, hidden amongst several tall, old weeping willows. Neji had not stirred, and he now lay on the grass in the middle of their circle.

"We found a rogue werewolf," Tenten sighed.

"_What_?" said Ino, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head.

"I thought that I sensed something odd out there, but I didn't think that it would come to be this serious," Shikamaru mused. Ino was about to have a seizure right then and there, or wring Shikamaru's neck. One of the two.

"Why didn't you say something?!" she demanded.

"Like I said, I didn't think it was that important!" he protested.

"W-We can heal Neji-nii-san. W-We have to!" Hinata murmured, her eyes swimming with tears. Though she and her cousin were not very close, it didn't mean that they weren't family.

"We will," Tenten said wearily, laying a hand on Hinata's shoulder. "Or it'll be the last thing I do," she muttered.

-

"Neji-kun, if you die, I am never going to forgive you," Tenten sighed.

She and Sakura were bent over their fallen Alpha, both of their hands in the healing seal that Neji had taught Tenten. "He was right, you know. This is a very powerful seal," Sakura murmured as green light poured from her fingertips. Tenten said nothing, but tried harder to make more healing power come from her hands.

As they watched, the more shallow wounds in his skin were healing themselves, though the extremely deep gashes across his chest and stomach were not making much progress. His breathing was shallow, his long brown hair in disarray around his pale face and closed eyes. Tenten touched his eyelids as she released the seal for a moment, and pushed the hair back from his face. Sakura, who saw all of this but made no comment, smiled slightly to herself.

"He'll be alright," she said calmly.

"He has to be," Tenten replied just as calmly.

They continued to heal.

-

Late that night, the Pack was still awake.

The Orphanage was all asleep, all but for the young werewolves lounging in the living room. Perhaps lounging would not be the right word: they were all tired, anxious, and rather beside themselves.

Tenten and Sakura, exhausted, had stopped the healing process for the day, bringing out blankets and pillows from the dorm. They moved Neji to the largest sofa in the living room as if he were sleeping, and early tomorrow morning they would move him to the willow clearing again to continue healing.

The four girls were still in their kimonos, though all of them were a little worse for the wear. Most sported scratches, dirt smudges, many wrinkles, and a few rips. The boys looked considerably better, though their faces were gloomy and had purple circles under their eyes.

At last, Shikamaru fell asleep just sitting there and Naruto started snoring. Sakura sighed and stood. "No use just sitting here worrying. Might as well get some sleep."

"Yeah," Ino yawned. "C'mon, let's take these boys up." Hinata stood.

"T-Tenten-san?" she inquired. Tenten smiled and wearily shook her head.

"I'll stay with Neji-kun." Hinata gave one last worried glance towards her friend before following the others up the steps. Tenten sat up off the sofa, and pressed her hand to Neji's damp and warm forehead. He looked so peaceful lying there, if she had not known what grievous wounds there were under those blankets. It was so much like when he was a child…

She froze.

The front door was situated next to the living room, and somebody was trying to get in.

Cautiously, she stood, her mind garbled by sleepiness and worry for Neji. It was as if she were moving through a dream.

Scratch. Scratch. The somebody was trying to be extremely quiet, and to a human's ears, those sounds would be unintelligible. To Tenten's wolfish hearing, it was still extremely quiet. Had she not been alone and the room not silent, she would not have been able to hear it.

There was a slight creak as the door slid open a crack. She stopped in her tracks. It stopped opening. She crept forward again.

At last, the door pushed almost completely open, and a tall figure stepped into the room. In the darkness of the living room, she could not see who it was very clearly, even with her wolf eyes. There was something familiar about the way that it moved, the way that it walked…

She squinted, and flipped on the light switch.

Her eyes widened. Her hand dropped back to her side as the man turned to face her, his expression cold. Those black eyes were the same as always, then.

"Uchiha," she whispered.

**A/N: OOOHHH CLIFFY!!! HAHHAHA SASUKE IS BACK!! –does a wild dance-**


	32. Return

**A/N: Ok, so now that Sasuke's back, I hope that more people are happy again, lol. This chapter shall be FLUFFY! Why? Because…I like fluffiness. It's cute, xD. Well, I hope that you all enjoy. This fiction is nearing the ending. There will be several more chapters, but it will be over soon.**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Trick Phase:**

**Return**

**-**

_Gentle foothills, and  
in the dew drops of the mountains,  
soaked, I waited for you--  
grew wet from standing there  
in the dew drops of the mountains._

_-Poem from Prince Otsu to Lady Ishikawa_

-

"You are not welcome here," Tenten growled, taking an aggressive step forward towards the onyx-eyed wolf.

He did not respond, his pale face in the exact same indifferent expression as before he had left. It was infuriating. But there was something different about him…a strange sense of _control_ both around him and in his eyes. He took another step into the living room, despite Tenten's warning. She growled.

"You left without warning. Why should we welcome you back?" she demanded. Her fists shook. He would be lucky to get away without some serious bruises.

He turned his gaze on her, his voice cool when he responded. "I am free to leave when I please."

"Like Hell! You can't just come back after you desert us! Do you _know_ what you did to her when you left? Can you comprehend what she was like, Uchiha!?" she demanded. Both of them knew exactly who she was talking about. "I can't believe that you would have the nerve to return after you left her like that!" she said, her voice rising in pitch.

His eyes flashed. "Where…is Sakura?"

Tenten's eyes narrowed. "I will not let you come just to hurt her again."

His expression crumpled for a second, but it regained its cold mask so quickly that it was eerily fast. "I…have come to apologize," he whispered.

Tenten took a step backwards. That one was a surprise. Uchiha Sasuke did not make apologies.

"You…did?" she said.

He did not answer, only looked towards the staircase. "Where are the others?"

"You don't deserve to know," she replied.

He closed his eyes and went quiet for a moment. "They are outside." Tenten opened her mouth in surprise.

"But…they're sleeping!" she protested in a moment of vulnerability.

"They are…worried…about something," the Uchiha mused. That was when his eyes fell on Neji, lying on the sofa.

"He is injured," he said. Tenten narrowed her eyes.

"What's it to you, traitor?"

"They are outside discussing options," he said as if she had not spoken. "They are worried about the Hyuuga." He eyed her frayed expression. "You should join them." With that, his eyes turned towards the staircase, inhaling deeply through his nose.

"She is lonely," he murmured. Tenten hesitated, and then stepped towards the door, opening it and going out onto the porch.

"Go to her," she said at last. "She's been waiting a long time."

-

Sakura stood at the window in the dorm, looking out onto the Orphanage grounds. She felt confused today, even more so by the girl's festival. It reminded her of all the things that she would not have: love, happiness. She sighed, tracing patterns on the cool grass.

Suddenly, she heard the door open, and turned automatically. Her eyes widened. She was hallucinating again, she decided. Well, if she was, then it was a pretty good hallucination, because the man who stood at the door now could not have been more like her Sasuke-kun in appearance. She smiled uncertainly, and then took two hesitant steps forward.

He was faster.

Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura met in the middle of the room. He took her in his arms and crushed her to him. She tilted her head up, and he pressed his mouth against hers. It was a fiery kiss, full of longing and loneliness and missing. Her lips tasted sweet to his mouth. He groaned at the scent of her flesh, so long absent. His memories hadn't done it justice. Her hands tangled into his hair. They needed air, but that could wait. This didn't happen in all of her hallucinating, so she was going to make the most of it.

At last, they broke apart. Sakura looked carefully up at his face, studying the familiar angles of his nose and his jaw and the spiked edges of his hair.

And then she punched him. Hard.

He stumbled backwards, clutching his jaw. Before he could react, she sped forward and gave him another punch in the stomach, another to the shoulder. As soon as he recovered from the first jaw-breaking blow, he grabbed her wrists and pinned them behind her back. She struggled, her expression furious.

"Uchiha Sasuke, I'm going to murder you!" she panted as she struggled against his death grip. "If you _ever_ leave like that again, I am going to _beat you up_ so bad that you'll never get up again!" she continued to struggle.

He winced. "I deserve it, don't I?"

"Hell yeah!" she exclaimed. "Let _go_ of me; I need to beat you into a bloody pulp!"

He smirked. "You haven't changed at all."

She smiled. "Would the old Sakura do this?"

She leaned forward and kissed him again, more gently this time. He released her wrists in favor of her waist, and she reached up to touch his face tenderly, especially the bruised jaw line. She pulled back, and smirked evilly.

"And now, you had better run, because these fists of mine can do a lot more damage than you'd think."

-

"Sasuke's _back_??!!"

Tenten quickly clapped a mouth over Ino's mouth. "Yes!" she hissed. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, please don't wake up the entire town!" Ino nodded, and Tenten released her hand. Ino spat.

"Eww."

"Sasuke-teme's back?" said Naruto. "I have to beat him up! He came back after what he did to Sakura-chan?" He shook his head in disgust.

"We all knew that he wasn't going to stay away for long," said Shikamaru. Four jaws dropped as they all stared at him.

"And how were we supposed to know that?" Tenten demanded.

Shikamaru looked around in surprise. "Oh. Right. I'm the only smart one here."

WHACK.

"INO! THAT WASN'T NECESSARY!"

Ino smirked. Shikamaru glared at her. "It was obvious, at least to me, that while he had such strong emotional ties to us and especially to Sakura, he would eventually come back. He went away to achieve control. Once he had done so, he would have no reason to stay away, except for his own pride."

"I'm g-glad that S-Sasuke-san is back," Hinata murmured. "Now S-Sakura-chan can b-be happy again."

"You know, I think she sensed that he was coming back too," Shikamaru commented. "She wasn't so much depressed as angry when he left," he added. Ino raised her eyebrows.

"She was perfectly depressed when he left, and you know it. Maybe now she's mad."

"Should we go up and see him?" Naruto suggested, cracking his knuckles. Tenten shook her head.

"Sakura's up there right now." She smirked. "Give them a few minutes."

-

"Where did you go?" she whispered.

They sat across from each other in the dying shadows of night, the moon flickering mysteriously over their faces.

"Far," he replied, his voice choked. "Too far. I had to come back…Sakura," he murmured. Sakura smiled slightly.

"I think I knew that you'd be back."

"I was broken without this Pack," he continued softly. "I discovered that I knew where I was meant to be." He paused. "I gained control."

She studied his face more carefully than ever now, noticing the change in his eyes: there was no longer that feral glint that he got whenever he was alone with her. There was no longer a fear of himself. Uchiha Sasuke had changed. Her green eyes widened slightly as his lips turned up at the corners.

"I no longer must be a danger to you," he whispered.

"Sasuke-kun…I was never scared of you," she said, confused.

"I was afraid of myself," he told her.

-

"Ten…ten…"

"I'm here."

"Ten…ten…" he said again, his voice grating against his throat.

"How are you feeling, Neji-kun?" she asked, busily changing his bandages with Sakura's help and cleaning his wounds before restarting the healing process. His pale eyes were open now: she didn't think she had ever seen anything more beautiful. He stared at the two wolves distantly, without much expression.

He grimaced. "It is bearable."

Tenten smiled. "Well, it can't exactly be a fun-fest."

His wounds were closing quickly now. Though the bandages continued to be soaked with blood, the wounds gradually sealed themselves as the day wore on. As night fell, Tenten and Sakura were both so tired that they were quite giddy and about to faint. Neji's wounds, however, were only pink scars.

"Arigato," he said to both of them.

He pushed himself up from the couch and winced slightly. Still sore. He turned to see the last person on earth that he had expected to: Uchiha Sasuke was standing with his hands in his pockets, looking at the two girls and his Pack Alpha.

"You have returned," said Neji heavily. Sasuke nodded and bowed his head. Neji paused, seeming to consider. He caught Sakura's expression, and Tenten touched his hand.

"You are welcome," he said finally. Sasuke bowed his head again.

"Arigato. It is more than I deserve." Sakura almost laughed. She had never heard Sasuke even coming close to being humble before. Tenten laughed also. She handed Neji a shirt that was lying on the sofa next to his head, and he slipped it on.

"You have worked hard. Go and rest."

Sakura happily obliged, but Tenten shook her head stubbornly. "I am not letting you out of my sight for at least another 24 hours. You scared me." Neji's expression altered slightly at this statement, his brow furrowed.

"There was no need for worry."

"On the contrary, there was," said Tenten. "You're Hyuuga Neji." She smiled. "Everybody has to worry about you, but especially me."

"You worry about me," he repeated. "Why is that?"

Tenten paused. "Well, I would say that it's because I love you more than anybody else."

Neji stared at her. "Tenten…"

They were interrupted by Rock Lee barging into the room, (again). "Tenten-san, my Flower of Youth!" he cried joyously. "Would you honor me with an early morning spar? If I lose, I will run around this city 50 times in my underpants!" Tenten sighed and waved her hands.

"That won't be necessary!!"

-

"We. Are. Going. To. Die."

"Wow, quite the optimist, aren't you?" Tenten said sarcastically to the distraught Ino. Ino glared pointedly at her friend.

"What, you don't think that we're dead meat? The end of year festival is coming up, and we've barely practiced at all. Besides, we don't have a song!" she shrieked.

"Calm down, Ino. You're going to cause an earthquake," said Shikamaru lazily as he leaned against the wall of the rehearsal room. "We have time."

"Well, not much," Sakura admitted.

Naruto started to count up on his fingers. "Three months."

"Two," said Sasuke. "The festival is in the Sky Moon." Naruto scowled and stuck out his tongue at the last Uchiha, who merely stared at the ceiling, seemingly too important to sink to the level of sticking his tongue back out at the blonde wolf.

"We could always drop out," said Shikamaru hopefully.

"We have signed a contract with Tsunade-sama. We would be going back on our word," said Neji. Tenten rolled her eyes.

"What contract?"

"T-This one," said Hinata, holding it up. Tenten sweatdropped. Who knew?

"Well, we've had worse things happen to us," she said for a touch of optimism. It didn't seem to have much effect on any of the gloomy personages of the room, so Tenten slouched back again, her eyes also rather hopeless. Nobody was going to back out of a fight involving dangerous, lethal werewolves with foot-long claws and frothing mouths and obsessions with blood, but when it came to stage fright and a drunken, furious Tsunade with equally furious fists…

"You know what? We are going to die," said Shikamaru brightly.

**A/N: YAY FLUFFINESS!!!!! –has a seizure and is once again dragged off by animal control- PLEASE!! DON'T TAKE ME!! I'M HUMAN!! (Well, at least I'm pretty sure that I am…-confused look-)**

**To questions:**

**No, Sasuke's not Beta: the Pack is still pretty mad at him, and Neji's recovered. Most of the Pack get injured at one point or another, so it wouldn't make sense to shift ranks all the time. Technically, the Beta is like a substitute teacher.**

**The rogue wolf…we will not yet find out who that is, but the next chapter may provide some answers if you guys are good and review, -wink-**

**And as predicted, Tenten, of course, took good care of Neji! **

**I can see that everybody's happy now that Sasuke's back. (Jeez, that's an understatement, lol.) As to why Sasuke returned, I believe that was covered in the chapter. If anybody is still confused about anything, please don't hesitate to ask!**


	33. Cherry Blossoms

**A/N: These last few chapters should be eventful, and yet not. They're eventful because they're wrapping up the story, (obviously, those chapters are important!), but they're also not because…oh, I don't know. They're just not like, a big event happens every other paragraph or something. But I still think they're fluffy and interesting and funny and action-packed. But that's not for me to say. I'm the writer, I'm supposed to think I'm the best thing that happened to Earth, lol.**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Trick Phase:**

**Cherry Blossoms**

**-**

_The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun._

_-P.G. Wodehouse_

-

"_Please_?"

Sasuke did not reply except to raise an amused eyebrow at the pink-haired beauty that was standing in front of him, and though her eyes were wide and innocent, her arms were akimbo as she stared him earnestly right in the face.

He hated when she had that look on.

All of a sudden, her expression changed. Her lips slid upward into a sly smile. She took a step forward. He didn't move. She took another step. He unwillingly took a small step backwards. She smiled wider. She moved until she was right in front of him, and took a few more steps forward. He kept backing up. _Crap!_

She'd cornered him.

She stood on tiptoes and slid her arms around his neck and kissed the line of his jawbone. "Please?" she said again, her breath tickling his skin. To her frustration, his breath remained cool and completely calm as he pushed her away from him.

"No."

She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "Demo-" She squeaked as Sasuke reversed their positions and her in the corner. She scowled.

"Should've seen that one coming." He smirked. She seethed at how much better he could look devious and make looking like an arrogant prick seem desirable.

"Damn right," he said, and kissed the corner of her mouth. She turned slightly, but he pulled back. She sighed.

"First you refuse to do me a favor, and now you're just plain trying to irritate me."

"Hn."

"Seriously, I need you to help taste-test the cheese products for the end-of-year festival!" she insisted. "If Naruto helps, he'll devour them all!"

"I refuse to eat cheese puffs," said Sasuke flatly.

"Not only _cheese puffs_, there's other stuff too!" she insisted. He raised his eyebrows at her in a skeptical look, and when she didn't seem like she was about to relent, he turned and was about to just plain leave when she grabbed his arms from behind and pinned them.

"Uchiha Sasuke, I swear I'll break your arms if you don't say yes," she hissed in such a venomous voice that Sasuke was suddenly wondering if the girl behind him really was the same girl who used to write "I LOVE SASUKE" on her shirt with Sharpe when they were twelve.

"Hn. I doubt it," he responded, as cool as ever. She pulled his arms further back. He winced slightly.

"Release me."

"No," she said in the most cocky voice that she could manage. He sighed. He hadn't wanted to use force.

"Eep!" Sakura squeaked. He maneuvered easily out of her grasp as he swung his fists upwards. She hurriedly dodged, but not before he whirled and pinned her back against the wall.

"I thought," he stared menacingly down at her, "that the end-of-year festival was months away."

She glared defiantly up at him, her green eyes sizzling with fury. She struggled a little, but he wasn't about to let her go. "Yeah, so we _thought_, but apparently it's in a week, and we're going to die, and the food preparations need to be done!"

"The festival is always at the end of May."

"We've never _had_ a festival before!" she shot back.

"That is when the school year ends," he said matter-of-factly.

"No, actually, it's not. We study year-round, and there is a break in a week, and that is when the festival is going to be held. Besides, we don't get summer break anyways, so what's the point of having it in May?"

"Hn," he said. She smiled.

"I won."

-

Tenten spat apple cider all over the table.

"He's _what?!_"

Ino jabbed her finger several times into the newspaper, and waved it wildly in her friends face, her blue eyes furious. "You heard me perfectly fine! He's _not dead_." Tenten scanned the headline news quickly and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, not willing to believe what was down in black and white, (quite literally).

"That's _impossible_! He stopped moving and changed back to human form once I bit him!" Ino eyed her doubtfully.

"Did you even bother to check his pulse?"

"I…" Tenten faltered. "No," she realized. "I was too worried about Neji-kun to really bother. He looked pretty dead to me, so I just…left."

Ino snorted. "Blind love." Tenten whacked her in the arm.

"Urusai yo!"

"Well, what else can these killings be about?" Ino shrugged. "This town is one of the safest in Japan if you're not counting the werewolf attacks." Tenten snorted.

"I suppose we'd better go and take care of him before Neji-kun gets wind of this and blows a capillary."

Ino sighed. "Yes, I suppose so."

-

Pant. Pant. A drop of sweat trickled down the side of Tenten's bruised face, her eyes furious. Ino was looking pretty miffed also.

They had managed to subdue the rogue wolf, after two hours of sniffing and hard running throughout the city, taking every shortcut that they knew. At last, they found him near one of the smaller dumps. They'd taken him by surprise, and now here he was, his head bowed and strapped _quite_ securely to a chair.

The wolf actually looked quite scary in normal human appearance too. His face was jagged and full of lines, though not the kind that came with age: hard lines of cruelty arched like cracks in dry sand, which happened to be the color of his skin. A giant pink scar stretched from his left cheek, across the bridge of his nose, (which had been broken at least once), and pulled up the corner of his eye so that he looked like he was leering. There was a patch of brown-purple covering part of his chin and all the way down to the side of his neck and disappeared into his grimy shirt, as if he had been burned. His hair was long, brown, filthy, and wild, tangled with snarls. As if this were not scary enough, Ino and Tenten had given him quite a few injuries, and he was covered in sweat, blood, and purple bruises.

"Who. Are. You," Tenten growled.

He ignored her completely. His eyes were closed, and she had yet to see them in his human body: he seemed to be unconscious, but his breathing signaled that he was obviously faking it.

"Who _are_ you!" Ino yelled, kicking the leg of his chair. Sakura put a restraining hand on her friend's shoulder, which she shook off almost immediately. The entire Pack were seated around his chair, in the concrete clearing of a construction set. The workers were taking a day off.

"Tell us your identity," said Neji in such an imperious, I-am-king-of-the-world voice that half the Pack were about ready to open their mouths and say their names. The rogue wolf, however, let out a low, ghastly chuckle, and his eyes shot open.

Ino made an "eep" sound and faltered a step backwards. As a wolf, his eyes had been gold like most werewolves' were, but as a human, they were a sinister pale green-blue that faded into an almost transparent purple on the outer rims of the iris. His eye whites were bloodshot. They looked out of place in his dark face.

"Heh. You the Alpha dog?"

"You will not inquire as to who we are. You are on our territory and at our mercy," Neji replied coolly. "I require your identity."

The other wolf leered at the Pack Alpha, and told him to go do something very rude.

"Don't _talk_ to him that way!" Tenten yelled, lunging at him, only to be restrained by Sasuke and Ino.

"Let me _go_, Uchiha!" she snarled. Sasuke raised his eyebrows, and did as she had asked. She stumbled forward slightly from the lack of resistance, her eyes furious. The rogue wolf's tongue flickered out and nursed a cut above his lip, his eerie eyes shining with something very, very scary. He shrugged at Tenten.

"It's good advice. That boy looks like he has serious mental issues." He smiled at Tenten, though it wasn't at all pleasant. "You got the hots for him or somethin'?"

Tenten snarled, and this time it was Neji who stepped forward and put an arm between her and the rogue. "That is enough," he said in such an icy tone that everybody in the room fell immediately into a very, very stony silence. They scarcely breathed.

"I command you one more time: tell me your identity," Neji said, bending down to look him in the eye. The rogue wolf chuckled darkly.

"Nobody much, since you're so desperate to know. Name's Roka."

Neji sat across from him on the sofa. "What is your business here?"

Roka snorted. "Business? Ain't never had any in my life. I'm hungry, I hunt. I'm tired, I sleep. Simple as that."

"You do not have territory to hunt on," Neji said, a statement rather than a question. It was obvious by the haggard edge to the rogue wolf and his lean frame, (though rather muscular still). A lone wolf did not often have any territory at all, much less one with good hunting grounds.

"I'm starving and tired and then these two brats beat me up! I ain't askin' for no trouble," he snarled angrily, and struggled against his bonds. They didn't give. He didn't look like he had expected them to. Neji folded his hands calmly and stared with that cool, I-am-better-than-you gaze at the rogue that even made his sharp tongue fall silent.

"You were not…sent?"

The rogue wolf stiffened. "You mean hired or somethin'?"

Neji nodded.

"Can't blame you for being suspicious," Roka answered admittedly. "Tough times these are, compared to the older days. Nah, I haven't been sent by nobody, or I woulda kept a better cover, you know?"

Neji seemed to consider, and then stood. "Untie him."

Tenten did so grudgingly with much ease, slipping a finger under one of the knots. The entire rope wrap fell apart and drifted to the wolf's ankles. Roka looked up in surprise and in thankful gratitude. "You're lettin' me go? Jus' like that?"

"Iie," said Neji. Roka narrowed his eyes. "You will first provide me with one more piece of information."

Roka glared up at the Alpha. "Seein' as your Pack outnumber me, I don't think I've got much choice, now do I?"

"No, you do not," said Neji calmly. "Have you ever associated with a red-haired wolf calling himself Subaku no Gaara?"

Roka's big shoulders stiffened. His lean, tanned face twisted into a grimace of open fear. "I swear, I've never heard of 'im!"

"You lie," said Neji coldly.

Roka's head turned frantically to gaze on all of the unsympathetic or surprised wolf faces around him, and then sagged in defeat.

"Alrigh', I know 'im."

"He offered a share of new territory if you aided him in invading our terrain," said Neji matter-of-factly, as if this were the most obvious fact in the world. Roka nodded.

"I've never had my own land this entire existence. All I want is to be able to live without fear always gnawin' at my back!" he insisted, seemingly more to himself than to his audience. "Nobody's ever come close to helpin' me. Gaara gave me a chance." Neji nodded gravely.

"I understand. You may leave, on account that you swear not to harm any civilians." Tenten looked at him as though he had gone insane. This guy had just admitted to having been sent by Subaku no Gaara, and they were just going to let him go without further questioning? Neji, however, did not so much as glance at her. He did, however, say:

"Tenten will accompany you as a guard."

Tenten glared harder at him just to make sure that he was realizing the fact that she was going to whack him into the next century after she was back, and led Roka out of the door without another word.

-

"You're a silent one, eh?"

Tenten scowled at Roka's fruitless attempt at making conversation. She walked in step with him towards the boundaries of their territory. He didn't seem bothered by the tense, business-like silence. He only stuffed his scarred hands into the deep pockets of his ripped pants.

"Where will you go?" she asked at last, just out of curiosity. Most of the other rogues that they met had no sense at all. They just attacked everybody and anyone that came too close to them. The Pack dealt quickly with this type of problem. Roka seemed different. Though wild and unruly, he actually seemed pretty sane. And like the type of person who at least needed someplace to _stay_ without getting attacked by hostile werewolves. She felt a little bad about what she and Ino had done to him. But just a little.

Roka just shrugged nonchalantly, as if she had asked about the weather, (this seemed to be his attitude once you got over all the scars, growling, and the creepy eyes). "Ah, same as I've always done. Scavengin'. A little risk in invadin' territory."

She nodded and kept her expression carefully under control. That didn't sound like the ideal life to live. Roka gave a feral grin, and she was reminded of the wolf in him that she and Ino had been forced to fight.

"What, you worried 'bout me?"

Tenten scowled. "Hell no." 

"Feisty, aren't ya?" He narrowly dodged the fist that she swung at his head. He dusted himself off and kept on walking as if nothing had happened until they reached the borderline, not too far from the Orphanage.

"Goodbye then," she said stiffly. Was there really anything else to say? Like "please never show your face here again"? She couldn't very well tell him that she would love to see him again soon.

He nodded as if he knew what she was thinking, (though that might have been possible, considering that they were both werewolves). "Goodbye."

And he was gone, running off in that huge wolf form into the distance.

-

**A/N: YAY! PLEASE REVIEW!**


	34. Aching

**A/N: This is the second-to-last chapter, not including the epilogue, (which I very much hope will be MASSIVE.) I hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter. It kind-of hints that you haven't seen the last of Gaara and his Pack…-wink- AND I'M NOW PASSED **_**300**_** REVIEWS!! I am ecstatic! I never expected to get this many…well, in my life, really…  
No, Naruto characters didn't really have any influence on Roka's character. He's strictly an OC that I made up, lol. Though he does have quite a character…reminds me of some of the creepier dudes in the Naruto fillers.  
Thank you guys again for the kudos!**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Bone Phase:**

**Aching**

-

"_Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."_

_-Mark Twain_

-

"Tenten."

She glared at the white-eyed prodigy and refused to respond, instead crossing her arms over her chest and pretending that he was smaller than a speck of dust and about just as important. He sighed.

"Tenten. Cease acting like a child."

"I am _not_ acting childish!" she protested. He raised an eyebrow at the slight pout that her mouth had fallen into, the crossed arms, and the slightly annoyed glint in her eyes. Her chin was tilted up, as if proving that she was better than everybody else. In truth, it was a mirror of her younger self. It hit him with a strong sense of déjà vu.

"Okay, fine, I am," she admitted. "Still, you're just being downright unfair, Neji. I'm not your servant."

"You are not," he agreed.

"Nor can you order me around just because we're friends. Or rather, you can't order me around _because_ we're friends," she continued matter-of-factly. He nodded in acknowledgement, much to her surprise.

"And…and…you can't force me to do things that I don't want to do," she said, running out of ideas. His intense, quiet staring made her uncomfortable and she was forgetting her argument. She was still _mad_, she just couldn't think of a good reason why.

"Tenten, you are not my servant."

"I know, Neji-kun! That's what I'm trying to say!"

"You are the only person to have ever come close to understanding me."

"Yes, I know th..." she trailed off. "Say _what_?"

Neji's lips twitched slightly at the corners. "You told me that you love me more than anybody else, correct?"

"Y-Yes," she said, confused by his question. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Love is a precious thing," he replied slowly, which just confused her more. "It is strange that you would try so hard to befriend one such as I, who sought no love or friendship from the day that I was born."

Her eyes softened. "Oh. Neji-kun, there was always something different about you. And I mean that in a good way!" she added quickly. "You always treated me better than all the other kids. They used to chuck things at me."

"I remember," he said gravely as if she had just announced that she was on somebody's hit list, (not that this had not happened before).

She smiled. "I think I've loved you for a very long time. Not for being Pack Alpha or being strong. For letting me braid your hair in a tree and telling me stories of the Hyuuga clan. And shooting twig-arrows at drawn up targets. And sticking up for me when the other kids tried to beat me up, not that I needed it," she babbled on.

He touched the side of her arm. Where their skin touched, it burned like it was on fire. Tenten flushed slightly, and even Neji seemed a tad uncomfortable.

"Tenten…" He looked intently at her, and she read in his eyes what he had left unsaid.

_I loved you too._

They stayed like that for a second, and then Tenten leaned forward a little on the couch, and Neji did not stand up or back away, so she kept leaning forward. Their faces were an inch apart, their eyes half closed, and then…

"Tenten-chan! I can't open this bottle of jam!" Naruto whined as he came up through the hallway. The two of them sprang apart, Tenten bright red and Neji looking like he needed to pee agonizingly badly, (though his face was in this expression many other times as well, so it was hard to tell if he was embarrassed or not).

Tenten was about to bite Naruto's head off whole, (this would have been possible if she were in wolf form), but instead, she just unscrewed the jar lid for him. Once he had left, she hurriedly mumbled a barely intelligible excuse to Neji, and bolted out of the front door.

-

"Oh. My. God. Oh. My. God. Oh. My. God. Oh-"

"Ok_ay_ Ino, we get the point!" interrupted a slightly irritated and slightly amused Sakura as her blonde friend paced up and down the rehearsal room. Sakura was taste-testing off a tray of cubed cheeses. Naruto was happily helping, much to her dismay. Half of the cheeses had mysteriously vanished.

"Why!" she moaned, (this was meant to be rhetorical, so Sakura clamped a hand over Naruto's mouth when he tried to answer her). "Why did I ever sign us up for the band performing for the festival??!! ANSWER ME!!"

Naruto didn't try to answer this time, as Sakura had practically cracked his jaw, she had been clamping his mouth shut so hard.

"Okay. We can do this," Ino said after breathing deeply and taking an aspirin that Sakura silently handed her. "I swear, we can do this."

"Of course we can!" Sakura said quickly. "We're werewolves. We can handle a human band performance, can't we?" Ino stared at her friend with baldly afraid, wide, bright blue eyes and looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown and cry at the same time.

"No, we can't. Tackle an evil opponent Pack and chase out a Rogue wolf that would kill hundreds of humans normally, sure, no problem. Giving a band performance, on the other hand…" she trailed off. They all knew what she meant.

"This'll be fun!" said Naruto cheerfully through a mouthful of cheese.

-

"INO! INO!" Tenten screamed.

She was waving around a pamphlet of two or three sheets of paper wildly over her head as she charged into the rehearsal room, with Hinata close behind her, looking shy and considerably more composed. "Hinata here wrote us a _positively brilliant_ song!" Tenten beamed and hugged her friend.

"You saved our lives, Hinata!" Ino declared happily.

Hinata passed off a murmured "you're welcome" before slumping down next to Sakura, having exhausted her store of outspokenness for the day when she had suggested Tenten let her write a song for them. Sakura clapped her appreciatively on the back.

Shikamaru ambled into the room, a pencil behind his ear and several sudoku books in his arms. He sat down between Naruto and Sakura, (thankfully the cheese tray had been removed), and continued doing the sudokus. "What's all the noise?" he complained. Ino beamed brightly.

"Hinata wrote us a song!"

"Eh?" Shikamaru glanced up, looking bored. "Okay. There's not much percussion, is there?"

"There is d-drum set," Hinata murmured, looking almost ready to faint. Shikamaru passed off a sigh of relief.

"Good. Let that baka Naruto drum his arms off. I'm not going to move."

Ino rolled her eyes and taped the song to the wall. "Behold, our new practice schedule!" she declared, whipping out a paper full of inked-out figures. Sakura grabbed it from her friend, and her eyes nearly bugged out.

"FOUR HOURS A DAY?? ARE YOU NUTS INO??!!"

-

The room was dark, dreary, and utterly depressing.

A single pair of sea green eyes shrouded in black lines were visible from the small inkling of light that trickled in from under the door. The sound of harsh breathing echoed throughout the small room, almost like a cage. The person drew in a shuddering breath and with a finger, obsessively traced the red tattoo on his forehead.

"He disappoints," he hissed.

There was a squeak, and then a strip of mouse-brown hair was visible in the jet of light. The girl turned, and her wide, frightened features were visible for a second before she winked out of view again. There was a slight scuffling sound, and then a wail of pain.

"Matsuri! Be more careful!" scolded another feminine voice.

"Gomennasai, Temari-san."

"Gaara, calm down!" Kankurou advised timidly, his purple facial tattoos glinting when he shifted to a more comfortable position on the floor. The effect of the slash of light across his brother's face was eerie and awe-inspiring. His green eyes were cold, but his lips were drawn back into a slight snarl.

Gaara spat. "Useless rogue."

"Well, he didn't look all that reliable," Temari snorted, much bolder than Kankurou with her words. "Figures that a giant Pack like theirs would've caught him. What did you expect him to do anyways, take down the entire Pack for us?"

Gaara turned to face his older sister, and she fell silent immediately. "It is done now," he said in a soft voice that sent chills down all of their spines.

"If we go through their boundary lines, they'll tear us to pieces!" Temari protested, catching her brother's drift. Gaara did not reply.

"We agreed that we would leave! It is wolf law that we follow through with our word. If we don't, we would be just sitting ducks for a fight!"

"Please," Matsuri whispered. "Gaara-sensei."

Gaara turned slightly to face her, the one eye that was visible to the girl cold. "Matsuri."

"Hai."

"Do not challenge me. I do not wish to end your existence." Her eyes were downcast, and she gulped visibly and she twisted her fingers together.

"Hai, sensei."

-

"Shika…"

"What, troublesome woman?!"

"…nothing."

Ino shook her head at the hopeless-expression wearing boy sitting in front of her. He looked close to pulling out chunks of his brown ponytail, staring at the broken maraca and the floor covered with pieces of dried rice. It was a mess that anybody would be deterred to clean up, let alone the laziest boy ever known to live in history.

She sighed and shook her head again. "I'll get the dustpan," she said resignedly, pushing herself up and dusting her pants free of rice kernels.

Tenten sighed and unstrapped her bass. "This is hopeless. We'll never be ready in time, you know."

"Aw, don't say that!" Naruto protested. "We can do anything! Dattebayo!" Sakura rolled her eyes and mock-shoved her friend.

"Yeah, maybe you're Superman, but the rest of us aren't. This is going to take a miracle."

Tenten nodded sadly, and sat down amongst the scattering rice shards, very carefully avoiding Neji's eyes, which were boring holes into her neck as he sat retuning the guitar that he was using, (wooden, since his taste in modern music, and therefore electric guitars, was not exactly positive. Neji detested "noise").

"At least we have a song, right?" Sakura added in hopefully, smiling bravely at Hinata. Hinata smiled nervously back, and clutched the microphone until her knuckles stood out. Her fear of the stage was not improving at all. The idea of many, many people all staring at her under a bright light, as if she were being studied by a scientist, was none too appealing to the timid-natured girl.

"A lot of good that'll do us," Tenten muttered, what little left of her optimistic mood ruined by that day's less than fruitful practice.

Just then, Ino came back with the dustpan, and everybody fell into silence as they picked up the rice kernels. "Sorry," Ino apologized at last. "Should've found the vacuum cleaner, but Tsunade-sama keeps it under guard or something."

"Mendokusai. I'll do it," he muttered, yanking the dustpan out of her hand. They all stared at him.

"Did you just…volunteer to do work?" Ino finally said in disbelief. He sighed, and began picking up the rice kernels.

"It was my fault anyways."

"Yeah, but-" Ino squeaked as she took a step forward and slid on the rice. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the impact to come, but it never did. She peeked open one eye. Shikamaru and Sakura had caught her. Her face flushed pink when she realized that Shikamaru's face was about two inches from her own, (granted, Sakura's was too, but she was used to that. Her pink haired friend often woke her in the morning that way). Shikamaru sighed, looking quite uncomfortable. His breath wafted over her face: it didn't smell all that great, but it tickled, and it made her blush more.

"Troublesome woman."

-

**A/N: Next chapter's the last!! (But not including the epilogue.)**


	35. Pact

**A/N: Okay, it's been a while, but this is the last chapter, and then the MASSIVE epilogue shall come! I just reread the last chapter, and realized that in the last bit, Ino was talking to Shika, but I never actually specified who he was correctly. The "he" that volunteers to clean up is Shika, so they're all surprised that he volunteered to do work. Hope that's cleared up.  
AND THERE ARE THREE QUOTES! As like a special ending thingy, xD.**

**-**

**Lantern Moon,**

**Bone Phase:**

**Pact**

**-**

"_Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional."_

_-Unknown_

"_Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."_

_-Harold Wilson_

"_When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty."_

_-Norm Crosby_

-

"We did it, we did it!" Ino shouted.

She flung herself at the nearest person, (which happened to be Shikamaru), and hugged him tightly. He made a choking face, and poked her in the ribs. She rolled her eyes and loosened up a little, and then he hugged her back. Sakura smiled. "Awwww," she laughed. "How cute."

Ino let go of Shikamaru and nudged her friend. "Shut up."

"Well, we've got reason to celebrate," Shikamaru admitted, his face red. "You troublesome people dragged me into this, and you're going to drag me back out. At least we finally learned the song." Ino nodded happily.

"Yeah. It's really something," she agreed, though she was staring at Shikamaru when she said it. Tenten snorted loudly into her cube of cheese.

"Tsunade got another band at the last minute, so we only have to do the opening act," Shikamaru drawled lazily. "We don't have to be up there the entire time. I persuaded her to let us have some free time, troublesome woman," he sighed. Ino's eyes brightened.

"Oh my God, Shika, I love you!" she squealed, and hugged him again.

"Is that a fact?" Sakura smirked.

"Yes!" Ino replied unexpectedly, her lips twisting into a sly smile.

"Ino…" Shikamaru's eyes were wide. Sakura smiled.

"You know, Shikamaru, for a genius, you're pretty dumb around girls," she said. "Though admittedly not as bad as Sasuke-kun here," she added on as a second thought, glancing over at the raven-haired boy. Sasuke scowled and crossed his arms, his black eyes staring at the ceiling. She laughed.

"Bit touchy today?" she nudged him. "Eh? Eh?"

She made a confused sound when he bent down and whispered, "Annoying" into her ear, and then gave her a long kiss on the mouth. She sighed contentedly and pulled herself closer to him. There was a wolf whistle from Tenten, and then Naruto scowled.

"Get a room, will you? You're ruining my appetite!"

"I don't see anybody complaining when you plant one on Hinata," Ino said, raising an eyebrow at the other blonde. Naruto flushed right up to his hairline, so red that he looked like he would pass out, and Hinata was even redder. The pair looked like tomatoes. Ino burst out laughing at the sight of them.

"Wanna try that, Shika?" she winked, still laughing.

"Ino…" he said her name again, his face now annoyed. "You're so troublesome."

"Yeah, that's me!" she said airily, hugging him tightly once again. "But you're my best friend," she said softly into his ear so that only he could hear her. "Don't ever go away, okay?"

"Yeah." He hugged her back.

"Who's the best friend, Ino-pig?" Sakura called, laughing. "I'm hurt!" she added, an expression of mock sadness pasted on her face. Ino rolled her eyes and let go of Shikamaru.

"Aw, Forehead-girl, you know I love you," she said happily, running to give Sakura a hug too.

"Sakura-chan's _my_ best friend!" Naruto pouted, hugging Sakura so tightly that she got lifted off of the ground. Sasuke's eyes, though still cold, revealed a trace of amusement.

"Don't kill her, Dobe."

Naruto scowled at his adversary. "Shut up, Sasuke-teme!"

"Na…ru…to…" Sakura choked. He let her go and rubbed the back of his head.

"Eh…heh…sorry, Sakura-chan." She glared at him and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, sure."

"When did this turn into a hugging fest?" Tenten inquired irritably, still painstakingly avoiding Neji's eyes. "If that's all you guys are going to do, then I'm out." She was met by five pairs of slightly hurt eyes and two pairs of indifferent ones, (Sasuke and Neji). She set her bass on a table, and stormed out of the room.

-

"Tenten-chan? Daijoubu?"

Sakura sat down next to her friend, having followed her from the rehearsal room in concern. They sat on the grass in the backyard under the big tree. Tenten didn't answer and just kept ripping grass from out of the soil between her fingers. She picked the blades to shreds with her fingernails. Sakura sighed.

"Something happened between you and Neji, didn't it?"

Tenten flinched. "No," she answered too quickly. Sakura raised her eyebrows.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want," she said slowly. "But I'm worried if you're acting like this, Tenten-chan."

This time, it was Tenten's turn to sigh dismally.

"I kissed him."

"You _what?_"

"Well, at least I _tried_ to, and then Naruto, that baka, had to just come in and interrupt…" Tenten took a deep breath. "Now I can't even look Neji-kun in the face without flushing. It's so stupid, and it's all Naruto's fault." Sakura smiled slightly in sympathy and amusement at Naruto's ability to ruin utterly all things romantic.

"Ouch. Sounds harsh."

"Yeah," Tenten rolled her eyes. "I'd like to have a good throttle at Naruto's neck, but seeing as we've got to perform at that concert and without a drum beat, we're as good as dead…" She sucked in a deep breath. "There's no way Shikamaru could take over drum set, could he?"

Sakura laughed and shook her head. "Well, I don't really know what to tell you, Tenten-chan. Do you want to try again?"

"Try again?" Tenten repeated, confused.

"Kissing," Sakura smirked.

Tenten flushed pink. "Er…I suppose so…"

"Then what's stopping you?" Sakura inquired matter-of-factly, her green eyes shining with slight mirth at her friend's embarrassment. Tenten made some gurgling noises in her throat as she tried to think of an explanation of how she felt, (which was very confused).

"But…I'm really embarrassed," she finally said. "Neji-kun probably thinks I'm an idiot."

"There's only one sure way to know," Sakura prodded.

Tenten exhaled. "Still. You don't know Neji-kun like I do. He's not…"

"…normal?" Sakura finished. Tenten nodded desperately.

"Well, no matter how much of an ice cube he is, everybody needs some love," Sakura told her friend, her voice certain. "I think he really does love you, Tenten." Tenten's brown eyes found her friend's luminescent green ones, and she smiled in relief.

"Yeah, I think so too. After all, what would he do without me?"

-

"Are you still sad about Temari?"

Shikamaru sighed, and Ino sat down next to him on the sofa. "You are," she answered herself.

"Not so much. What's done is done," Shikamaru sighed again, his eyes focusing up on the ceiling. "Temari left. I'm stuck here." He shrugged.

"So…no use crying over spilt milk?" Ino volunteered.

"Troublesome women," said Shikamaru, not bothering to answer and talking to himself. "I wish I had never met any." Ino raised her eyebrows.

"You're talking to one."

"You're…different," said Shikamaru, exasperated. Ino's eyes narrowed dangerously into evil glinting slits of bright blue as she stared down her childhood friend. Too late, he realized his fatal mistake.

"Are you implying that you don't think I'm a girl?"

"N-no, woman!" he hastened to explain, his arms waving protectively in front of his face. "Don't hurt me!" She laughed, and settled back down.

"You always did have a way of ruining your relationships." He scowled, but had no argument, as she had a good point there.

"Ino, I do love you," he said after a while.

"Yeah, I know. You told me, remember?" she replied calmly. "You just love Temari more." He nodded gratefully at her.

"One woman is bad enough. Two is Hell."

She laughed. "Got that one right."

-

"Can't we rest?" Temari complained.

Gaara's cold eyes swiveled to glare at her, and she fell immediately silent. She was not fool enough to argue with her brother when he was in one of his "moods". He had not killed anything for a long time now, as Matsuri's influence had kept him from it, but Subaku no Gaara was more than willing to start his killing spree again.

"I can…see it…" Gaara hissed. Slowly, with dread in their eyes, the other three looked up from the ground. Sure enough, far away in the distance, they saw the boundary lines of the other Pack.

"Oh, God…" said Temari.

-

"Subaku no Gaara."

Gaara and Neji, (once again), faced each other across the boundary line. The Hyuuga's very eyes were chips of opal lined ice. Gaara's betrayed no emotion at all, set like dulled peridot against his death-pale face. A gentle breeze blew, ruffling his red hair.

"You are unwelcome here," Neji elaborated, his own long brown strands of hair blowing back in the breeze. The tie that held them together slipped, and the ends grazed against his face. Gaara leered.

"I have come to take what is mine," he replied.

"I am afraid that is not possible," Neji countered. Though his outside appearance remained cold and calm, his muscles tensed slightly. Behind him stood Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke smirked, and Naruto looked eager for a fight to break out right then and there.

"Gaara," Kankurou whispered. The redhead ignored him completely.

With a snarl, Gaara lunged forward into wolf form. Neji countered in the swift blink of an eye, their jaws snapping at each other. Within moments, the wolves were all caught in a giant, heaving mass of fur, claws, and blood, all seeking the throat and all failing.

In the middle of the other wolves, Gaara and Neji were locked in battle, both struggling hard to overcome the other and both failing. Their strength was equal to the last claw. Neji let loose a snarl of frustration as Gaara dodged yet another of his attempts, trying to evade the other Pack, and get past the boundary.

Just then, Sasuke, having managed to get rid of Temari for a moment, leaped onto Gaara's back. Just as the red wolf twisted in surprise, Sasuke bit down on the side of his neck. He missed the vital spot, but with one last frustrated snarl, Gaara rolled over and showed his belly. Panting, Neji, Sasuke, and Naruto all reverted to human form. Gaara and his Pack soon followed suit.

"You should not have challenged us," Neji said.

Gaara pushed himself up from the ground, his eyes hateful. Instead, he curled both hands into fists, and nodded to Neji in acknowledgement. "You are strong."

"Begone."

The four turned to leave, but as the others made their way forward, Temari hesitated. "Shikamaru…how is he?"

"Suffering," said Neji after a moment. Temari smiled weakly.

"Yes, the same for me. Will you tell him that we have been here?"

"Yes," said Sasuke unexpectedly. Both Neji and Naruto turned to look at him. His eyes were intense and curious, speculating Temari's anguished face. "I know what it is to be separated from the one that you love more than any other," he hissed. Temari nodded curtly at him in thanks.

"Goodbye."

She turned to follow her Pack.

-

**A/N: Kind-of short, but the epilogue is next, and it is HUGE.**


	36. EPILOGUE

**A/N: Ah, so here you have it: the last installment in the Chords fiction. –sigh- I'm feeling the relief and sadness of having a story be over…It's hard work for an author, you know. Now everybody's mad at me, but I suppose that's good, if you're mad because the story's ending. It means I've done a pretty good job, lol. **

**Thanks again for all the reviews and support that you've given me. **

**Please enjoy!**

**As Always,**

**DewWater**

**-**

**EPILOGUE**

**-**

In all of its long years, the old wooden structure of the towering Orphanage, so much like an old mother guiding its children, had never looked so lively and festive. The dreary wooden boards were spruced up by decorations of live flowers, (though they were fast withering without water) and garlands of fat, green leaves.

Out in the backyard, giant tents with great striped patterns had been set up. Within, the hosts were busy setting up tables and games, chattering away as camping style seats were set up. An air of festive joy was bustling in the air.

All the little children were hyper beyond belief: they ran back and forth between the backyard and inside the Orphanage with tireless energy, fetching things for their elders, but mostly getting underfoot and in the way of things of the older kids as they moved things from inside to out. There was many a muttered curse as they tripped over a running child.

Tsunade was yelling orders outside, her arms akimbo and her eyes overseeing the progress like an eagle's. Her blonde hair was all over her face and she kept having to blow it out of her eyes. Kakashi and Jiraiya were helping out also, though they were mostly dillydallying.

The stage was being set up right in the middle of things. The celebration was pouring out straight into the street: all were welcome to attend. The stage covered part of the sidewalk and all the way into the road: a great black colossal thing, it was supported by many interlocking slats under the platform. Workers milled busily about it, setting up stage lights and other such things.

Curious townspeople gathered to watch the preparations on their way back from grocery shopping, their mouths agape, or driving past in cars, honking horns at the road blockage. The shop owners around the area poked out their heads and sat out in front, sipping tea and watching a festival setup unfolding in front of their mirthful eyes.

This celebration had been long anticipated for.

-

The day passed with furious energy. At last, the sun was getting tired and sinking below the blurred purple-black horizon. It looked like a great big glowing egg yolk, disappearing into folds of scarlet and orange sky. Its rays illuminated and bounced off of the clouds, making them appear all shades between pastel blue and soft pink.

A sort of hushed silence fell over the children and adults alike of the Orphanage as people began to seep into the at-first empty tents. The hubbub built up to a roar of voices as more and more people arrived, laughing and joking with the friends and enjoying the long night out.

Of all the nervous and excitement bubbling in the air, it was probably unequaled to the scene boiling backstage.

Yamanaka Ino was having a nervous breakdown. Her blonde hair had been put up into two messy high pigtails by Sakura, and streaked with sky blue from one of the spraypainting stands. She bit her nails, rocking back and forth slightly in one of the chairs.

"Ino-pig, you've got to relax!" Sakura laughed at the sight of her friend. She pulled up a chair and sat down. Sakura's hair had been pinned up by chopsticks, (courtesy of Ino). Loose pink strands fell and framed her face elegantly. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement, her green eyes glowing. "You're going to be great."

"No, I'm going to die," Ino moaned pitifully. "What if we blow it? It'll all be my fault?"

"Who says?" said Tenten, walking over and sitting down on the other side of Ino and winking at Sakura. "A band is a band: all of the people are essential to make the piece sound good. You're not always the center of the universe, you know." Tenten had her hair in a long braid, pinned on top of her head into a swirling bun. She had on a pair of black fingerless gloves that she had cut for herself earlier.

Ino perked up slightly. "Eh? Where's Hinata?" She made an effort to smile. Sakura and Tenten smiled slightly back.

"Getting ready and warming up, I expect," said Sakura. "C'mon, we should be too! The best way to warm up cold fingers is to…well, warm up." She stood, and quickly found her guitar resting against a wall where she had left it.

Tenten pulled Ino up, and they also found their instruments. Ino smiled and relaxed slightly as she played a few simple scales on her keyboard. Tenten strapped on her bass backwards, (again), though this time she righted it herself after realizing her mistake. Ino's teeth chattered. "Please, please, please don't do that onstage," she pleaded. Tenten rolled her eyes.

"Sure thing, mother."

She strummed a few deep chords. Sakura played a melody to go along with Tenten's beat. It sounded very good, compared to what they had been doing at the beginning. Sakura laughed. "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!"

"Ano…"

Tenten, Sakura, and Ino all gasped in delight as Hinata walked out from behind the door of a changing room. Her pale eyes were downcast and shy. She twiddled her fingers, an old habit that they had never quite helped her get rid of.

"M-May I join y-you?" she asked timidly.

"Of course!" said Ino warmly, realizing that Hinata was probably more nervous than she ever could be. The girl was trembling from head to foot, though she looked more than beautiful with the makeup job that Ino had given her earlier, and they were all quite confident that she would sing marvelously. Hinata had always been lacking in self-confidence.

"Hinata-chan, you'll be great!" Sakura told her confidently. Hinata tilted her chin up a little, her eyes sparkling as she tried a small smile.

"A-Arigato, Sakura-chan."

Sakura waved her off airily. "I'm only telling the truth. What's to thank for that? C'mon, let's get ourselves tuned up."

-

"Oi, Lazy, your beat is off," Naruto complained.

Shikamaru glared at the blonde, coming close to bringing down the maraca he was holding across his head and breaking another one. "It is not."

"It is," said Neji.

"Troublesome people," Shikamaru sighed, and adjusted the tempo he was shaking the maracas so that it matched Naruto's vibrating bass drum beats. Naruto smiled happily as his arms moved easily around the drum set. Sasuke thrummed the bass in rhythm, and Neji twiddled with the guitar's knobs.

"This is awesome!" Naruto crowed. Sasuke smirked.

"Dobe."

-

"Alright, everybody!" Tsunade's imperial voice sounded on the outside of the curtain. She had dressed herself up in a red dress, her hair pulled back into a simple but nicely done ponytail. Jiraiya stared at her like she was a goddess. Kakashi indifferently pulled out his little orange book.

Behind the curtains, Sakura leaned over and took a peek out at the mounting crowd, and bit her lip. "Alright, guys. This is it," she whispered.

"No going back," Ino muttered, her eyes once again frenzied and nervous.

Hinata's teeth chattered, too scared to speak.

"Let's do this!" Naruto whooped.

"Shush!" said the girls, as Tsunade had paused at his outburst. Her voice continued on again. Ino's knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on the megaphone that she was holding. Neji put his hand on Tenten's shoulder.

"Please welcome a group that has worked very hard, from our very own Orphanage," Tsunade finally declared loud and proud, "…The Terminators!"

"The _Terminators_?" Ino hissed in disbelief as they pulled aside the crack in the curtains to roaring cheers from the audience. "Since when were we The Terminators?!" Her nervousness was forgotten in her incredulity and anger. Realization was dawning on Tenten. Her eyes opened wide.

"I asked Lee to sign us in this morning!" Tenten recalled with horror, shielding her eyes against the bright stage lights. "I was too busy to do it myself…I guess he must have made up the name off the top of his head…I'll throttle him later, I promise," she added on savagely as she strapped on her bass again, (the right side out this time). Ino nodded in vast agreement as she helped Naruto and Shikamaru drag out the drums.

"Hello everybody!" Ino shouted into a microphone, glancing worriedly over at Hinata, who's eyes were wide in panic, and was holding onto the microphone stand as if it were the only thing holding her up right then. She didn't look ready to announce them, so Ino was doing it for her.

"We're…er…The Terminators," she coughed. "This song was written by this fair lady right here," she motioned to Hinata, to more rousing cheers. "It's called Illusion."

She backed away from the microphone back the keyboards. On a soft count from Naruto, Neji strummed a few soft, delicate chords on his guitar, his fingers nimble and weaving out a melody so beautiful that it was almost painful. Shikamaru shook his maraca, an annoyed expression pasted on his face.

Hinata gulped, and squeezed her eyes shut. She was supposed to start singing in another 20 counts, once Neji and Shikamaru's long intro was over. The words floated through her brain, as if she were reading them off of a paper. She opened her mouth and closed it again, taking a deep breath through her nose.

_I can't do this!_ She was panicking.

"Hinata-chan!" She froze. Naruto was whispering to her. "We believe in you! You can do it!" She bit her bottom lip. She couldn't just let her friends down like that. _Naruto-kun._

Eight counts. She curled her fingers more tightly around the microphone stand, trying to ignore the swarming black mass of people, silhouetted against the brightening stage lights, below her.

Four counts.

Three…two…one…

She took a deep breath, and pretended that they were in rehearsal, in the tiny little room back in the Orphanage, and closed her eyes, letting loose…

_I am gazing up at the endless sky,_

_Mouthing the words to a song I do not know,_

_I count the glittering stars one by one,_

_Too afraid to hope_

She opened her eyes in surprise. Her voice hadn't stumbled a bit! Ino smiled encouragingly as she entered into the background melody along with Naruto, who was gently tapping the cymbals. Ino played a melody like water, and then Hinata started to sing again.

_Are you watching me silently,_

_From a forest I have not seen?_

_Are you aching deep inside,_

_Hiding it from me?_

Sakura struck a loud chord, followed by Tenten and Sasuke. They were entering the fast part of the song now. Hinata breathed a sigh of relief. All eight of them took part in this part. She didn't have to be singled out anymore. She smiled slightly as they entered into the fast tempo together.

_I am gazing but not seeing,_

_Blinded by a place that knows no light,_

_Hear the depths of my heart,_

_The notes ring true_

_Are you gazing on my lost eyes,_

_Pleading for your return?_

_Watching from an ocean too vast,_

_A space of time too long?_

Ino winked and gave her a thumbs up for a brief moment. Sakura smiled too, though she was looking at Sasuke. He noticed her staring, and let loose one of his famous smirks. Sakura, imitating him, smirked back.

_Please,_

_Let me loose from this illusion,_

_That I will be alright,_

_Leave me,_

_As I am, As I will be,_

_Come back to me,_

_Come back to me._

For a moment, they all went silent as Neji played on his guitar again. Then Sakura, Tenten, and Sasuke came in once again, and the girls were all singing loudly.

_Please,_

_Take away all this pain,_

_Shield me from reality,_

_Take me,_

_As I am, As I will be,_

_Come back to me,_

_Come back to me,_

_My elusive angel,_

_Come back to me,_

_Come back to me,_

_My illusion,_

_My solace,_

_My destiny,_

_My only._

They struck a final chord, and then the crowd was roaring with approval on their feet. All of them were standing, and then they were all holding hands, bowing. They gazed out over the crowd, hand in hand, not willing to have it any way else.

-

"C'mon!"

Ino dragged the other girls backstage to change into their party clothes. The boys went another way, also to change back into some normal clothes. The band's attire was all black.

"Hinata-chan, you were great!" Sakura declared as she pulled a shirt over her head in her stall.

"Totally," Ino agreed, stepping out as she was the first to finish.

"A-Arigato!"

Soon, the others were also done. They went over to the other side, and found the boys. Naruto was so excited that he was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. As soon as he sighed Hinata, he grabbed her hand and smiled slightly impatiently. "C'mon, Hinata-chan, let's go!" Before she could even protest, he had dragged her off into the crowd.

Sakura smiled shyly at Sasuke, her eyebrows raised. He smirked at her, even more confident than he had been on stage. Sakura glanced pleadingly back at Ino, asking with her eyes if it would be alright to hang out with the blonde later. Ino laughed. "Go ahead."

Sakura and Sasuke left, and then Ino prodded Tenten until the brunette walked reluctantly forward towards Neji. Then, satisfied that her work there was done, Ino took Shikamaru, and the four pairs went their separate ways into the crowd.

-

"C'mon, Shika, what do you want to do first?" Ino laughed, dragging him along. The main band had struck up a nice song, pretty fast paced, and it got her blood boiling and her legs impatient to do some running.

They arrived at a food stand, where their old friend Chouji was munching bags of potato chips. They both bought some fried tako, (squid), and went to find a quiet place to sit and eat, "away from all this noise", as Shikamaru had complained irritably.

They finally found a bench around the side of the Orphanage, where the noise was a pleasant background hum, and chewed happily on their squid.

"You having fun?" Ino questioned. Shikamaru nodded.

"Hard not to, with you around." She shoved him playfully.

"Kiss-up."

"You're my best friend!" he protested. "I'm supposed to have fun with you! You look…pretty…" He flushed red. She turned an odd, but pleased, shade of pink also at the compliment.

"I do?" she fished.

"Troublesome woman," he mumbled. She took that as a yes.

"Shika…" she said softly. He turned towards her questioningly.

She leaned forward and kissed him questioningly, looping her arms loosely around his neck. His arms automatically drew her towards him. After a moment, he pushed her gently away. "Ino," he protested. "I can't."

"I know," she sighed. "But just tonight, okay?"

He didn't argue, so she leaned forward again to touch his lips with her own. This time, he kissed her back. They broke away for breath a few moments later. She smiled at him. "See? You do love me."

He paused. "I do. But…"

"It's still Temari," she finished for him, resigned. "But as long as you still love me as your best friend, and almost as much as Temari when it comes to being a girl…" she laughed. "That's okay with me."

"Ino," he stopped her, and she turned in question.

"Yeah?"

He didn't need to answer. He nodded his head at one of the tall hills that bordered the back of the Orphanage. On the top, silhouetted eerily against the now ebony sky, the silvery stars, and a perfectly crescent-shaped moon, were four figures. Ino's breath stuck in her throat.

"It's them, isn't it?" she whispered.

"Speak of the Devil," Shikamaru muttered. He hesitated. Ino smiled and pulled him up with her as she stood.

"Go on. I know you want to see her."

Shikamaru touched her arm in a grateful gesture. "Thanks, Ino."

-

"Temari."

The said blonde turned to see Shikamaru standing next to her on the hill. Gaara gave her a long stare, and then the other three vanished down the hillside to find a place to spend the night. Temari noted that her little brother and Matsuri's hands were loosely linked, as if she were his child. Or perhaps their student-teacher bond had grown into something more…?

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

She shrugged. "We're not on your territory, if that's what you mean. The border line is right at the back of these hills." She smiled. "Not that Gaara's not going to try and take your territory again. You've got my warning."

His eyes probed her face curiously, a deep ache pounding in his heart. "I've missed you," he admitted.

She laughed. "You kept your promise."

"Promise?"

"You told me that you would never forget me."

"It was true," he said slowly. Temari gazed more carefully at his face.

"Something is troubling you," she stated, taking a step forward. He met her halfway there, but stopped her when she leaned up to kiss him, and instead tilted her head slightly to the side so that they were locked in a soft hug.

"Ino," he whispered.

"I knew that it would happen, you know," said Temari, surprising him. He had expected her to be angry.

"You did?"

"Yeah." She shook her head. "Even though she's a brat, I think she's probably better than I am." She smiled weakly as she pushed him away slightly.

"That's the problem. I still do love you, Temari, but her also," Shikamaru admitted. "It's troublesome."

"Don't hurt her," said Temari simply. "I'm sorry that she and I never got along, for your sake. But I think she's not as bad as I thought she was, if you can love her. I'll never stop loving you…but I think I agree with you when you said that we can never be together."

Shikamaru smiled weakly back at her.

"Well, I don't think I'll bother you again," said Temari with a try at airiness. He nodded, a lump in his throat.

She leaned forward and kissed him gently, a goodbye. He stroked her cheek, and didn't push her away this time. She took one last look, and then disappeared in a streak of speed down the hill where he could not follow.

-

"Hinata-chan! I'll get us some ramen," said Naruto. "Stay right here, okay?"

Hinata nodded, and then the blonde rushed off towards the ramen stand. He was back in what seemed like a second with two giant, steaming bowls of the stuff. Hinata smiled. Same old Naruto.

"Arigato."

She took her bowl, and they sat down at the rows of picnic benches that had been set up under an awning, where many families and kids were already eating.

Hinata had never been much of a talker, but she didn't ever need to worry about lack of conversation with Naruto around. As they slurped their ramen noodles, Naruto chattered away about pretty much everything: the quality of the ramen, how annoying Sasuke was, how pretty he thought she looked that night, how much ramen they had gotten, how the band had performed, ramen, how loud everybody was, ramen again…

She smiled and nodded happily, noodles vanishing into her mouth, as she listened to him. Naruto made her feel so uplifted sometimes…she let herself loose and slurped the ramen a little more loudly. Naruto laughed.

"That's the proper way to eat it, Hinata-chan!"

"Naruto-kun, thank you f-for helping me on the s-stage," she said gratefully.

"Ah, that? No problem," said Naruto modestly, scratching the back of his head.

Hinata gazed at him carefully. It was a wonder how he managed to keep so happy and resolute all the time, with the rest of the Pack seeing him as an annoying fool, and having no family. At least she had Neji…what did Naruto have to hang on to?

"Don't y-you ever get l-lonely, Naruto-kun?" she murmured.

His cerulean eyes widened. "Lonely? Why?"

"You…d-don't have a-anybody c-close to you, do y-you?" she said softly, her wide white eyes already regretting her questions. Naruto pouted.

"How could you say that? I have you, Hinata-chan. And the ramen." She flushed up to her hairline.

"Oh…" He cocked his head curiously at her uncomfortable and embarrassed expression, (though deep down, she was feeling very, very pleased).

"Are you okay? You're all red," he said in concern. She nodded hastily.

"H-Hai!"

"You have a spot of sauce on your lip," Naruto pointed out. Hinata wiped at it hastily with her napkin, flushing even redder.

"Nah, on the other side," said Naruto, coaching her.

She missed it again.

"Here, I'll get it," he said. He leaned across the table and kissed her, his tongue darting out to lick the spot of sauce off of her mouth. She made a muffled sound of extreme surprise, feeling like she was about to faint again. He released her just as she was _really_ about to pass out, and promptly knocked over their ramen bowls.

"AIII!! HOT!!"

-

"Sasuke-kun! Let's go dance!" Sakura declared.

Sasuke's coal-black eyes widened in mild panic as he was dragged onto the dance floor by an impatient and hyperactive Sakura. They were soon surrounded by dancing couples and little children trying to imitate the grown-ups.

"I don't dance," he said coldly.

"Well, I'll teach you," she said cheerfully, unfettered by his remark. She placed his hands on her waist and looped her arms around his neck. "See? Now we just kind-of…dance," she said, failing to explain. He chuckled darkly as she made slightly nudges with her arms against his neck to tell him which way to go.

"Annoying girl."

She laughed, and her green eyes danced, though her arms tightened against his neck.

He choked. "Say that again, and you're a dead man," she hissed into his ear.

"Oh? When did you become so fond of threats?"

"Only for you, Sasuke-kun," she said sweetly at a normal tone of voice as she pulled back from his ear.

"I seem to recall a twelve-year-old fangirl, and now this?" he said, his eyebrows raised. She smirked confidently up at him.

"And what is 'this'?"

She watched with enjoyment as Sasuke struggled for words, scrutinizing her lovely, pale face and her sparkling emerald eyes. Her pink hair was still up in its bun. Absently, he reached up with his right hand and pulled them out so that her hair fell around her shoulders.

"You," he said simply, brushing a few stray strands back behind her ears.

She closed her eyes at his touch, a smile tinting her lips. "Arigato, Sasuke-kun."

"For what?"

She opened her eyes. "For being you."

Unconsciously, they had closed the gap between them. Their foreheads pressed together. "Sakura."

Their mouths met. She ran her fingers through his ebony hair, having missed it and everything else about him so much when he had left. He did the same to her hair, breathing in the sweet smell that seemed to come in waves from her skin, her hair. It still smelled as sweet as ever…he groaned.

"You. Are. Mine."

"I love you, Sasuke-kun."

-

"Tenten…what happened…"

Tenten flinched. She had been waiting for Neji to bring that up, and she wasn't all that happy now that he had.

"Yes?" she questioned.

Neji faltered, his white gaze locked on her face. She stopped breathing for a moment, and so did he, and then the moment passed. "Hn."

She sighed. "You are so stupid sometimes."

He raised his eyebrows as they walked among the many vendor's and game stalls, but did not question her statement. She took that as a cue to continue. "Why can't you just say what you think once in a while?"

"I do. I am Alpha."

She tittered impatiently. "I mean what you _really_ think…Neji-kun, basically, I wish you weren't such a jerk. Or an ice cube. Or-"

"Tenten. Please."

She exhaled. "Fine. I'm waiting."

"Eat."

"Wha-?"

He shoved a bowl of rice, several pieces of candy, a kabob of roasted lamb, dumplings, a packet of soy sauce, a piece of pie, and a juice box into her face. She nearly overbalanced trying to carry the hefty load.

"HYUUGA NEJI, I CAN'T SEE WHERE I'M GOING!" she cursed when she ran straight into him, and he relieved her of half of the load, his face still deadly serious, though the corners of his mouth were twitching like they always did when he was amused.

"Thank you," she exhaled, glaring at him, and chewing on the kabob to stem her anger. "Where did you get all that food all of a sudden anyways?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Eat."

"I know, I know!" she said hastily. "See? I'm eating. C'mon, let's walk."

They actually managed to finish off the food after much hurried chomping. Tenten finally opened her mouth once they had gobbled the last dumpling, wiping her mouth with her sleeve and catching a dribble of soy sauce. Neji raised his eyebrows.

"There is a napkin."

She glared at him. "I _know_."

"You wiped your mouth with your sleeve."

"Your point?"

He shook his head.

"Speak."

"God, Neji-kun, this isn't court, you know."

Crickets.

"Okay, okay, let's talk."

"What is there to talk about?"

"Neji-kun, you know what I mean," she said, exasperated.

"I do."

"You were the one that brought it up earlier."

"Hn."

She paused. "You know what? I don't think I want to talk about this after all."

"Hn."

"I hate you."

Silence.

"So maybe I don't _hate _you-hate you…"

"Tenten. You are rambling."

"So what if I am?"

"That is a problem."

"Let's fix it," she said. He was about to ask her what the Hell she was talking about, if she was not suddenly two inches from his face, her eyes glinting with mischief and a secret challenge. "You up to it?" she whispered.

In answer, he closed the gap between them, and their lips met. She laughed against his mouth. And for the first time in his life, Hyuuga Neji truly smiled.

-

Two hours later, the eight of them lay on the grass, watching fireworks explode in the sky. Naruto was munching on a paper bag of popcorn that Chouji had given him as a gift, sharing with Hinata and occasionally tossing pieces up into the air for Akamaru, who was playing nearby. Shikamaru was asleep, Ino's head on his chest, her eyes closed. Sakura and Sasuke both kept peeking at each other out of the corners of their eyes, until Sasuke reached out an arm. Sakura happily let him wrap said arm around her shoulders. Neji and Tenten both were lying with their arms behind their heads, but their elbows and knees were both touching.

"You know, I think everything turned out pretty okay," said Sakura to nobody in particular.

"Yeah," said Tenten. Crunch, crunch, went the popcorn.

"Pretty okay? I'd say this stuff is freakin' awesome!" said Naruto out of nowhere, pointing at the popcorn.

And it was, as they promptly found out when a popcorn fight ensued, waking up a cranky Shikamaru and Ino.

May you have much popcorn.

-

**A/N: Okay, kind-of a weird ending…but anyways, please tell me what you think! –sniff- Tis the end!! (And you have to admit, that WAS freakin' huge…)**


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